Ponzi scheme

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Major Austrian Investor Tied to Madoff Vanishes

Bank Medici founder lost $2.1B, may fear jilted investors

(Newser) - Sonja Kohn, the well-known founder of Austria’s Bank Medici, has disappeared from public view, the New York Times reports, after Medici lost investors $2.1 billion in the Bernie Madoff mess. Kohn was a good friend of Madoff’s, and aggressively pushed his wares. She may be hiding out...

Madoff Sought Cash to Keep Scheme Afloat

Disgraced financier given $250 million by friend to stave off collapse of business

(Newser) - As the feds closed in and Bernard Madoff scrambled to shore up his crumbling firm, a longtime friend gave the disgraced financier $250 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. With investors seeking to redeem $7 billion from the fund, Madoff turned to 95-year-old Carl Shapiro for help, promising a quick...

Jail Ruling Looms After Madoff's Bling Gifts

Prosecutors charge he violated bail by scattering assets

(Newser) - Accused Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff is enjoying what could be his last hours of luxury inside his palatial $7 million New York apartment after prosecutors demanded his bail be revoked for sending some $1 million in jewelry to family and friends, Reuters reports. Madoff is due in court Thursday...

Madoff Mails $1M in Bling; Feds Pounce

(Newser) - Prosecutors are fuming after Bernard Madoff mailed more than $1 million in jewelry to his sons on Christmas Eve, the New York Post reports. The Ponzi schemer was dragged into court today but left under house arrest pending written arguments. Madoff's bail agreement allows such a gift, but an SEC...

SEC Probed Madoff 8 Times, Came Up Empty

Congress questions watchdog's ability to keep up with fraud

(Newser) - Congress begins a probe today into why federal regulators who examined Bernie Madoff's investments eight times in 16 years failed to sniff out his decades-long $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Among those in the hot seat is Barack Obama's appointee for SEC chair. Mary Schapiro was involved in several of the...

Madoff Ruse Exploited Palm Beach's Clubby Ways
Madoff Ruse Exploited
Palm Beach's Clubby Ways
ANALYSIS
Jan 3, 2009 3:08 PM CST

Madoff Ruse Exploited Palm Beach's Clubby Ways

Swindler exploited ritzy Palm Beach culture to bilk investors

(Newser) - You have to give it to Bernie Madoff: The Ponzi pirate wasn’t your average fraudster, Daniel Gross observes in Slate. Look no further than Palm Beach, which was "ground zero" of his scheme. Madoff got where he did by “fiendishly exploiting the unique, clubby culture" of the...

Madoff Got $10M Investment Days Before Arrest: Suit

Funds were businessman's first Madoff deal

(Newser) - A New York businessman is suing to recover $10 million he handed over to Bernard Madoff 6 days before the alleged Ponzi schemer was arrested, the Wall Street Journal reports. Martin Rosenman wired the funds to a JP Morgan Chase account controlled by Madoff, who told the first-time investor that...

Any Madoff Money Will Be a Long Time Coming

(Newser) - If past fraud cases are a guide, investors rooked by Bernard Madoff will have to wait quite a while to see even a fraction of their initial investments returned, Reuters reports. Court action is notoriously slow, but that’s only half the problem: Recovering money is possible only if it’...

Thieves Return Madoff Statue, Lesson Attached

Note suggests 'swindler' return his plunder, too

(Newser) - The thieves who nabbed a $10,000 copper statue from fraudster Bernard Madoff's swank Florida home have returned it, along with this note: "Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners." The advice was penned by "The Educators," whose inspiration may be a German...

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Lead to Madoff

Actor, wife Kyra Sedgwick lost money in Ponzi scheme

(Newser) - It turns out Kevin Bacon didn’t put enough degrees between himself and Bernie Madoff. Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick join Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg on the list of Hollywood denizens duped by the Ponzi schemer, Bacon’s rep confirmed to New York magazine. Rumor has it the couple...

Madoff May Have Built Ponzi Scheme on Charities
Madoff May Have Built
Ponzi Scheme on Charities
analysis
Dec 29, 2008 7:38 PM CST

Madoff May Have Built Ponzi Scheme on Charities

(Newser) - How did Bernard Madoff keep his Ponzi scheme going for so long? The answer, if true, will inflame even more public rage: He relied on charities, Mitchell Zuckoff writes on CNNMoney. Ponzi schemes often run dry when investors withdraw en masse, but foundations are legally required to spend only...

Tables Turn: Madoff Gets Ripped Off

Thieves rip-off investment fraudster

(Newser) - In a bit of poetic justice, a thief stole an expensive statue from the Palm Beach estate of Bernard Madoff last week, the New York Post reports. Burglars took a $10,000 copper statue depicting two lifeguards from the fraudster accused of losing $50 billion of investors’ money in a...

Madoff May Plead Insanity
 Madoff May 
 Plead Insanity 
Dec 28, 2008 3:56 PM CST

Madoff May Plead Insanity

Sources say attorneys are considering multiple personality disorder argument

(Newser) - You'd have to be a little bit crazy to cook up a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, but Bernard Madoff’s lawyers are exploring taking things a bit further with an insanity defense. “They may even say he has a multiple personality disorder,” a source tells the New York ...

Benjamin Button Writer Sues Over Madoff Losses

'I'm a sucker,' says Roth

(Newser) - The screenwriter who penned The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is suing his investment manager for losing his life savings in the Bernard Madoff fiasco, reports the New York Post. "I'm the biggest sucker that ever walked the face of the earth," said Eric Roth, 65, who also...

5 Men Who Fueled Madoff's Ponzi Scheme

(Newser) - Government investigators are turning their eye to the middlemen who led clients into Bernard Madoff's long-running Ponzi scheme. The Wall Street Journal profiles five of them:
  • Robert Jaffe: A dashing Florida philanthropist, he funneled tony clients to ex-boss Madoff. Jaffe says he is a "victim of these tragic events.
...

Madoff's Claim He Acted Alone 'Preposterous'

Fraud experts say the $50 billion scam was too complicated

(Newser) - Fraud experts following the Bernard Madoff probe say his claim that he alone executed a Ponzi scheme that fleeced investors out of some $50 billion is “preposterous,” reports Reuters. "The amount of transactions, the number of dollars that are involved in the Ponzi, I just don't see...

Madoff Was Livin' Large in Lap of Luxury

High-roller owns yacht, jets, and properties up and down East Coast

(Newser) - If disgraced money-man Bernard Madoff felt any guilt about his Ponzi-scheme hedge fund, you'd never know it. Now that he's under house arrest, his "lifestyle of the rich and infamous" is somewhat limited, but in a fitting tribute to a man who just fleeced investors of $50 billion, CNN...

Madoff Investor Kills Himself
 Madoff Investor Kills Himself 
Dec 23, 2008 1:44 PM CST

Madoff Investor Kills Himself

Hedge fund head who lost $1.4B committed suicide

(Newser) - A hedge fund founder whose firm lost $1.4 billion in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme was found dead in his Manhattan office today, an apparent suicide, reports the New York Times. Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, had been trying to recover money for European clients of Access International Advisors,...

Conn. Firm Collected $500M From Madoff's Marks

Fairfield Greenwich didn't deliver promised oversight to clients

(Newser) - With its clients having lost $7.3 billion in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, a Connecticut hedge-fund advising firm wants the public’s sympathy—but in fact, the Fairfield Greenwich Group took almost $500 million in fees alone from the money Madoff shepherded. And, the New York Times reports, it’...

As Losses Mount, Madoff Son Goes Shopping

Investment scam doesn't appear to hinder family's holiday spending

(Newser) - Watching investors lose their shirts on Bernard Madoff’s investments didn’t deter his son and daughter-in-law from a holiday shopping spree yesterday, the New York Post reports. Andrew Madoff, who worked for Dad’s failed financial firm, and wife Deborah power-shopped SoHo, snapping up items from J.Crew, Kidrobot,...

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