Madoff

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) says there is a "look-alike" Web site for a fictitious organization that is mimicking the SIPC Web site in an apparent attempt to target Madoff victims. 

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has started publishing a list of the individuals and businesses who owe the most taxes to the state; it will update the lists monthly. One of the Top 250 on the individual list – owing $984,280.86 - is Bernard Madoff. By the way, he is number 68. 

Yesterday, we mentioned an interview of Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos in this week’s New York Times magazine. Today is the release date of the Markopolos book, “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller.” In the book, Markopolos:

Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland has upheld the Madoff trustee’s method of calculating net equity claims against the Madoff estate, dashing the hopes of investors who sought to rely on the false documents that Madoff had sent to them. 

Harry Markopolos, who tried for years to tell the SEC that Bernard Madoff was running a scam, was interviewed in yesterday’s New York Times magazine section by Deborah Solomon.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged one of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's key operatives with falsifying accounting records to enable the multi-billion dollar fraud and illegally enrich himself, Madoff, and Madoff's family and employees. 

A N.Y. state judge has denied a motion by Ezra Merkin to dismiss a complaint filed against him by N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo stemming from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. The complaint alleges that Merkin and his investment management company made misrepresentations and omissions to investors, including many charities, who entrusted him with their money.

There are reports surfacing that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan is contemplating bringing tax fraud charges against Bernard Madoff’s sons and brother, apparently in lieu of claims more directly relating to the Ponzi scheme. This is, of course, reminiscent of how the government nailed Al Capone back in the day.

An excellent summary of yesterday’s bankruptcy court hearing in the Madoff case by Noeleen Walder for the New York Law Journal is available online, and required reading for anyone interested in keeping track of the arguments. 

The Law Journal article is available

This morning, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland will be holding a hearing that could have a relatively significant impact on the amount to be recovered by victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The bankruptcy court will be deciding what would seem to be a rather straightforward question: how big was this huge financial fraud?