Madoff

On Wednesday, August 25th at 9PM ET/PT, CNBC is presenting “American Greed: Madoff Behind Bars,” a one hour documentary narrated by Stacy Keach. It appears to be worth watching for anyone interested in learning about Madoff's current life. Apparently,

Eliyahu Weinstein, aka “Eli Weinstein,” has been charged with running an investment fraud scheme causing losses of at least $200 million. Weinstein, of Lakewood, N.J., was charged with one count of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud in connection with the alleged scheme. Vladimir Siforov, of Manalapan, N.J., also was charged with one count of wire fraud in connection with the alleged scheme (he remains at large). 

The federal government has filed two complaints seeking the civil forfeiture of approximately $5 million in assets controlled by Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi. Don’t know who they are? Well, as alleged in the complaints, they both spent more than 25 years working for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (“BLMIS”), the fraudulent investment advisory business owned and operated by Madoff.

Lawyers from the Madrid law firm of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo reportedly have indicated that about 720,000 overseas investors who lost money when their banks invested in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme have reached a $15.5 billion settlement with the investors’ banks. That amount should allow investors to receive their investments back in full, not including increases they had believed they were achieving. 

New York State today filed a lawsuit against Ivy Asset Management, LLC, its former Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Simon, and its former Chief Investment Officer Howard Wohl for allegedly deliberately misleading clients about investments tied to Bernard Madoff. The suit alleges that Ivy and the two principals kept their clients in the dark about damaging financial information about Madoff so Ivy could bring in millions in advisory fees.

Remember the name of the U.S. District Court Judge who sentenced Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison? It was District Judge Denny Chin. But now, it’s going to be Second Circuit Judge Denny Chin. The U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Chin today, 98-0, to become a judge on that federal appellate court.

Westport National Bank, a money manager, and the money manager’s company have been sued by Connecticut, which is seeking to recover $16.2 million for investors in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. 

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s company and his assets, Irving Picard, has submitted a third interim report to the bankruptcy court, with information as of March 31. There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, including:

The failures of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Madoff case have been well discussed here and, it seems, almost everywhere else. Now, the SEC Inspector General is expected to criticize the SEC when he releases a report soon examining the SEC's actions in the case involving R. Allen Stanford, who is awaiting trial in Texas. 

Following reports that he was beaten up in prison, Bernard Madoff has taken justice into his own hands. Using a fake ID with Prisoner # 4012010 instead of his actual identification, Madoff has escaped from prison. The warden says that history’s greatest Ponzi schemer is “on the lam.” Federal corrections officials say that they are taking “all necessary steps” to recapture the fugitive.