Down But Not Out: From Hedge Funds to Pizza Delivery

For the first 45 years of Ken Karpman's life, everything was close to perfect.

He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree and M.B.A., then got a high-paying job as an institutional equity sales trader. He married his dream girl, had two children and traveled the world on expensive vacations.
Over the span of Karpman's impressive 20-year career as a trader, he climbed the company ladder, reaching a salary of $750,000 a year.
"Life was good, we were making a lot of money -- and why wouldn't this just continue on?" Karpman said.
From all appearances, Ken and Stephanie Karpman were living the American dream in Tampa, Fla., nestled in their 4,000-square-foot home that sits on a golf course. "I had no idea what anything cost in a store," he said. "I'd just put it in the cart and buy."

Karpman was so confident in his good fortune and the strong economy that he left his job in 2005 to start his own hedge fund. To pay for the new business and their standard of living, Karpman quickly burned through $500,000 in savings and, like so many Americans, took a line of credit against his house.

But in the reversal of fortune that followed, Karpman was unable to attract investors and was forced to dissolve his hedge fund. He found himself jobless in a job market that had collapsed.
In the past, Karpman had found it easy to get a job. It wasn't so this time around.
"When I used to go into a job interview, I probably came across as a jerk because I was like interviewing him to see whether this firm was worthy of me," he said. "Now it's kind of like you almost feel like you're coming in with your hat in your hand."

After a lengthy and fruitless job search, the Karpmans were shocked to find themselves in financial dire straits, with zero savings, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and their home in foreclosure.
Desperate for quick cash, Karpman tried to find a job bartending but came up empty. Finally, he drove his Mercedes to Mike's Pizza & Deli Station in Clearwater and applied for a job. Mike Dodaro, the owner of the pizza shop, said he was shocked when he read his application but he offered him the job despite some reluctance to hire an over-qualified candidate.
Stephanie Karpman said she was more than a little surprised when he came home with his new job, initially saying, "You're kidding me, right?
"Delivering pizzas," she said, "Never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd be doing that."

Karpman's salary plummeted from six figures to $7.29 an hour -- plus tips -- but it's money that he's grateful to earn, even when it means delivering to neighbors or his old office building.
"This whole progression down, it's amazing how many things you say, 'I can't do' and a week later you say, 'Yeah, I could do that,'" he said. "I'm not going to make a career out of this but, until I get something that pays more, this is what I'll do to keep food on the table."

The stress has also taken a toll on their marriage. Stephanie Karpman said she didn't want her husband to leave his trader job in the first place and wishes he would have put more in savings.
"There's no question of where the fault lies," Ken Karpman said. And when it comes to finger-pointing, "I point it in my direction.
"If we didn't have to worry about the lights getting turned off, we can spend more time talking about us."
Each day has brought new lows and new lessons in living with a little less "stuff" and a lot more humility.
"The worst thing for me, for both of us probably, was, you know, to go to just friends around here, and say, 'Can I borrow some money?'" he said. "Pizza was a step up."

The Karpmans are now on food stamps and a tight budget that doesn't nearly cover their children's $30,000 private school tuition. But thanks to an anonymous donor, the Karpmans children's tuition has been covered through next year and they are deeply appreciative
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"It's just something that kind of makes you a little misty every time you think about it, that somebody would do this for our kids," he said. "But we'll have a chance at some point to do that for another family."
The family's jet skis now collect dust in the garage near the Mercedes, with its broken transmission they cannot fix. The home they will soon lose has fallen into disrepair.

Stephanie Karpman has closets full of clothes and handbags she likely won't be able to take with her and is eyeing consignment shops as a place to unload them. She said she has found herself going through her closet and wearing clothes she hasn't touched in years.
As Karpman counts every penny he earns, he still hopes he can come back from the financial brink and reclaim a lifestyle he, like so many Americans, never imagined he could lose.
"I need a couple of wins," he said, "and I think that, hopefully, it'll mushroom up like it caved in."

VIDEO!! Engaged Joaquin Phoenix attacks a fan at Miami concert!

Watch as Joaquin Phoenix turns into a complete idiot, cursing out and attacking a fan by leaping into the audience at the Fountainebleau Hotel in Miami. In response to a heckler, Phoenix went into an expletive-laced tirade and boasted about his financial superiority. "I've got $1 million in the bank. What have you got? " According to Radaronline, Phoenix then launched himself into the crowd, which had been waiting around four hours for the "hip-hop star," and attacked the man. The crowd chanted "beat him up, beat him up!" or something like that. It's hard to hear in the video. Security guards quickly responded by dragging -- not the heckler -- but Joaquin, the evening's star, out of the venue. Curiously, Phoenix's brother-in-law Casey Affleck was there capturing the whole evening on video. And for those who think this is all part of some bizarre Andy Kaufmanesque act, it does bring memories of Kaufman's violent wrestling mania moments. Theatre of the absurd, anyone? But somehow we don't think this is a joke. And if it is, it's not funny. Does anyone else think this guy is self-destructing in front of our eyes? Phoenix makes Crazy Days Britney Spears -- at her windshield-bashing, head-shaving, crotch-flashing best -- seem positively subdued and sane. At least she didn't jump off the Video Music Awards stage and attack a fan, right? Although, that would have made her performance there worth watching ...

Madoff Scandal - Frank Casey, the crystal ball that Wall Street dropped

About nine years ago, Frank Casey went to New York to check out the competition and came away unimpressed with Bernard Madoff.

Casey was vice president of marketing for Rampart Investment Management in Boston, one of the country's top firms specializing in investing in options. Madoff, at the time, was earning a reputation on Wall Street as a can't-miss money manager who used options strategies to produce double-digit returns without blemish.
But from what Casey saw in 1999, Madoff's system did not make sense.
"Either he wasn't doing what he said he was doing, or maybe he was using the clients' money to help his own positions," Casey recalled in an interview yesterday.
When he reported back to colleagues at Rampart, one in particular grew determined to unravel Madoff's mysterious investment strategy - portfolio manager Harry Markopolos. And when he couldn't, Markopolos undertook a crusade against Madoff that started with asking officials at the Boston office of the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate him.
Now an executive recruiter, Markopolos declined to be interviewed. But what regulators did - and did not do - in response to Markopolos's entreaties is a now a burning question for the agency, after Madoff's arrest last week on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that lost up to $50 billion, perhaps the largest in history.
The SEC and other authorities say Madoff confessed to running a Ponzi scheme - paying one set of clients with money from another - cheating dozens of investors, including some of the most prominent families in Massachusetts, out of millions. The charges came after Madoff allegedly confessed to employees of his own firm.
Madoff's attorney didn't return messages yesterday.
The SEC did conduct two inquiries of Madoff, in 2005 and 2007. The agency did not find any major problems at either time. The SEC said it won't discuss whether either review was prompted by Markopolos.
At a conference yesterday, SEC enforcement director Linda Thomsen declined to comment specifically on the Madoff situation but said "we are sort of vigorous in pursuing those who violate the federal securities laws."
The SEC has been criticized repeatedly over the years for missing or being late to investigate potential fraud and other cases that have led to substantial investor losses, and some industry specialists believe the Madoff case will result in a major reexamination of the agency.
"Congress will predictably give them little mercy," said John Coffee, a professor of securities law at Columbia University.
Casey said he first began to hear about Madoff's strategies in the late 1990s and went to visit a New York money manager who invested clients' money with him. He said he was unable to see how Madoff's returns matched broader patterns in stock markets.
For instance, Madoff seemed to make money even when the markets fell, a fact that didn't square with the way he was using put and call options to hedge against market moves, Casey said.
"Madoff's return streams didn't correlate," he said.
Markopolos and another colleague, Neil Chelo, a former Rampart portfolio manager, also tried to unravel Madoff's strategy, but they, too, could not figure how it could work, Chelo said.
David Henry, an independent investment adviser and friend of Markopolos, said Markopolos wrote at least one memo outlining why Madoff's strategy seemed amiss, which he shared.
Michael Ocrant, a former financial journalist, said one memo that Markopolos sent the SEC listed more than 28 warning signs the SEC should look in Madoff's business, and he remembers reading the words "Ponzi scheme" in it.
"Pretty much everything that's come to be, he laid out in exact detail," Ocrant said.
At the time Madoff wasn't very forthcoming. "It's a proprietary strategy. I can't go into it in great detail," he told Barron's magazine in 2001.
The same year, he told Ocrant, "I'm not interested in educating the world on our strategy, and I won't get into the nuances of how we manage risk."
Both Henry and Casey recall Markopolos alerting SEC officials of his suspicions and giving them memos, starting with the Boston office around 2000, and later, according to Casey, contacting officials at the SEC's New York offices.
Henry said yesterday that when he first heard of Madoff's arrest, he called Markopolos to compare notes.
Markopolos, Henry said, remarked, "It's about time!"
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Bernie Madoff's Victims List - $50 billion dollars that went to "Money Heaven"

Bernie Madoff's Victims (So Far)
HSBC "has emerged as one the largest victims of Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraud with potential exposure of about $1bn to the investment manager’s collapsed venture...HSBC’s exposure stemmed from loans it provided to institutional clients, mainly hedge funds of funds, that wanted to invest with Mr Madoff. HSBC’s direct exposure is believed to be about $1bn in loans provided to clients who invested some $500m of their own funds in Mr Madoff’s venture. Under the typical terms of these deals, if the US authorities recover any funds from Mr Madoff, HSBC will be paid first, with its clients suffering the first tranche of losses." (FT:)
Man Group’s RMF division has about $350m invested in funds which outsourced their management to Madoff securities, although this is a tiny fraction of the division’s $25bn of assets. (FT)
Tremont Capital. Fund of funds. $3.3 billion invested. (FT)
Pioneer Investments, an arm of Italy’s UniCredit, had “substantially all” of $835m invested with Madoff. (FT)
Maxam Capital Management LLC. Combined loss of $280 million. "I'm wiped out," said Sandra Manzke, Maxam's founder and chairman. The Darien, Conn., fund of hedge funds will have to close as a result of the losses, she said. (WSJ)
Fairfield Greenwich Group. Bloomberg: The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff’s eponymous firm, three people familiar with the matter said... Fairfield Sentry has a record of more than 15 years with an annual return of 4 to 6 percentage points above benchmark interest rates, according to a marketing document dated this month that was prepared by Zurich-based NPB New Private Bank Ltd. On an absolute basis, returns exceeded 10 percent every year from 1991 through 2000. Since then, they ranged from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent...The strategy is a “split-strike conversion,” where the investment manager buys shares of large U.S. companies and enters into options contracts to limit the risk, the document says.
Fix Asset Management. Bloomberg: Fix Asset Management, which had an account worth at least $400 million with Madoff Investments. The firm said it’s checking with lawyers about the holdings. “We are very shocked,” John Fix, the son of founder Charles Fix, said by phone from Greece. “We put in redemptions in the past few months and got our money back no problem. We are just so surprised about all this.”
Kingate Management Ltd. Bloomberg says $2.8 billion Kingate Global Fund Ltd. invested with Madoff.
Santander. WSJ: The eurozone's largest bank by market value, said its clients had an exposure of €2.33 billion ($3.1 billion) to Madoff's investment funds, mainly through its Optimal Strategic US Equity fund. More than €2 billion belongs to institutional investors and international clients of its private-banking business, which provides services to wealthy individuals, it said. The remaining €320 million belongs to private-banking customers in Spain, where Santander is based.
Thyssen Family. Source sends the following: Thybo Investments grew out of a family office for Thyssen. They have been in fund of funds it seems since 1989. Thybo International is a "proper" fund of fund but it's newer share class G invests only in one manager - and i'm 99% sure it's Madoff as the returns are almost the same. Some more info. The fund started in Jan 2007. Ernst & Young. Luxembourg are the auditors. UBS Luxembourg is the administrator. Thybo states on their webpage: "Our track record incorporates audited financial statements at both a composite firm-wide and individual portfolios level."
Ira Roth's family. WSJ: Ira Roth, a New Jersey resident, who says his family has about $1 million invested through Mr. Madoff's firm, is "in a state of panic." He said his 86-year-old mother-in-law has been living on the investments' returns, and he has been using the funds to pay college tuition.
Sterling Equities. Fund controlled by Fred Wilpon, co-owner of the NY Mets, confirms it had money with Madoff.
Stephen Abbott, a San Francisco lawyer. WSJ: [Abbott] and two siblings had several hundred thousand dollars invested with Mr. Madoff. They inherited the trust from their father, who had befriended Mr. Madoff years ago. Performance remained steady through the current bear market, he said. "People were floored," he says. "We were making money in this lousy market." He says he is concerned about recovering the money but "you have to get philosophical about this stuff. It could be worse; we still have our health."
Palm Beach Country Club. Source: CNBC's David Faber
Lawrence Velvel, "69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, said he and a friend may have lost millions of dollars between them (AP). "This is a major disaster for a lot of people," Velvel said in a telephone interview from his Andover, Mass., office. "You work all your life, you finally manage to save up something, and somebody who's entrusted with it, it turns out suddenly he's a crook. Lots of people are getting fully or partially wiped out." Velvel said he wants to know where government regulators, as well as accountants and others at Madoff's company, were when the money was being lost." (AP)
Loeb Family. Source: CNBC's David Faber
J. Ezra Merkin. GMAC LLC Chairman. WSJ: Mr. Merkin, the chairman of former General Motors Corp. financing arm GMAC, is also a money manager at Ascot Partners LLC in New York. Ascot, which had $1.8 billion under management as of Sept. 30, had substantially all of its assets invested with Mr. Madoff, according to a letter to Mr. Merkin sent to clients Thursday night. Mr. Merkin said as one of the largest investors in Ascot, he believed he had personally "suffered major losses from this catastrophe."
Norman Braman. Former Philadelphia Eagles owner
Leonard Feinstein, co-founder of retailer Bed Bath & Beyond. (WSJ)
Mort Zuckerman. Mr. Zuckerman, the chairman of real-estate firm Boston Properties and owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, had significant exposure through a fund that invested substantially all of its assets with Mr. Madoff (WSJ)
Richard Spring. WSJ: A Boca Raton resident and former securities analyst, says he had about $11 million -- or 95% of his net worth -- invested with Mr. Madoff. "That's how much I believed in him," Mr. Spring said.
Elie Wiesel's Foundation For Humanity. Total assets of about $10 million.
Members of half-a-dozen country clubs: WSJ: "Mr. Madoff tapped social networks in Dallas, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis. In Minnesota, he attracted investors from Hillcrest Golf Club of St. Paul and Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, investors say. One of them estimated that investors from the two clubs may have invested more than $100 million combined. One of the largest clusters of Madoff investors was in Florida, where losses could be substantial. Mr. Madoff relied on a network of friends, family and business colleagues to attract investors. According to investors and agents, some of these agents were paid commissions for harvesting investors. Others had separate, lucrative business relationships with Mr. Madoff. "If you were eating lunch at the club or golfing, everyone was always talking about how Madoff was making them all this money," one investor says. "Everyone wanted to sign up." Jeff Fischer, a top divorce attorney in Palm Beach, says many of his clients were also Mr. Madoff's clients. "Every big divorce that came through my office had portfolio positions with Madoff," he says. Two of his investors said that among his clients, Mr. Madoff was considered a money-management legend; they would joke that if Mr. Madoff was a fraud, he'd take down half the world with him."
Bramdean Alternatives in the U.K. 9% of portfolio.
Banque Benedict Hentsch, Geneva-based private bank, $47.5 million.
Nomura and Neue Privat Bank. "Marketed access to Fairfield Sentry Ltd., a fund overseen by Mr. Madoff and sold through Fairfield Greenwich. The shares offered by Neue Privat and Nomura were leveraged three times -- meaning $3 of borrowed money was added to every $1 of capital invested in order to magnify returns, greatly increasing the potential losses for those investors." (WSJ)
Unicredit. The Italian firm had unspecified amount with Madoff via its Dublin-based Pioneer alt-asset group. (MarketWatch)
Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Unspecified (Newsday).
Robert Lappin Foundation in Massachusetts closed its doors today and is citing relationship to Maddoff fund. $8MM foundation plus personal holdings. Foundation supported Jewish organizations throughout North Shore of Massachusetts. (source: Jewish Journal)
Wunderkinder Foundation, a Steven Spielberg charity. In the past the foundation "appears to have invested a significant portion of its assets with Mr. Madoff, based on regulatory filings. In 2006, the Madoff firm accounted for roughly 70% of the foundation's interest and dividend income, according to regulatory filings. A representative of Mr. Spielberg confirmed that the foundation has suffered losses on its investments with the Madoff firm. He said he didn't know the size of the losses and couldn't comment further, including on whether Mr. Spielberg had any of his own money invested with the Madoff firm." WSJ
BNP Paribas. "BNP Paribas's exposure, the extent of which is not clear, may stem from BNP's lending relationship with a fund of funds that was a big Madoff client, said people familiar with the matter. A BNP spokeswoman declined to comment." WSJ: BNP, France's largest bank by market value, said it could lose as much as 350 million euros as a result of the alleged fraud. The bank said it has no investment of its own in the hedge funds managed by Bernard Madoff Investment Services. BNP Paribas, however, said it is exposed to these funds through its trading business and lending to hedge funds that had invested in Madoff's funds.
Ira Rennert. Vicky Ward of Vanity Fair, said on CNBC."Heavily, heavily invested."
Englebardt family of Los Angeles. (Reader)
Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co. "said its clients had an exposure of some 385 million Swiss francs to Madoff funds. The bank said Reichmuth Matterhorn, a fund that invests in other hedge funds, faced a potential loss of about 8.6% on its exposure to Madoff. That amount represented about 3.5% of the 11 billion Swiss Francs Reichmuth & Co. has under management, the bank said." (WSJ)
Union Bancaire Privee. UBP spokesman said the bank's clients have "limited" losses related to Madoff, but wouldn't be more specific or comment further. (WSJ)
EIM Group, the European investment manager with about $11 billion in assets, had a number of non-U.S. investors into funds overseen by Mr. Madoff, according to people familiar with the matter. Overall, EIM assets at risk are less than 2% of what it manages, which means losses could top $200 million. (WSJ).
UBS: ""Very limited" direct exposure to the Madoff funds...But the Zurich-based bank's wealth-management arm helped clients in Europe and possibly elsewhere invest with Mr. Madoff, according to investment professionals in Europe who spoke with some of these clients. UBS is currently reviewing its clients' exposure to Mr. Madoff's funds, according to the person familiar with the matter. The person said the funds weren't on UBS's list of "recommended" investments for its U.S. clients, but that they may have been among the firm's suggested investments for overseas clients." (WSJ)
Stephen A. Fine, president of Biltrite Corp. (Reader)
Avram and Carol Goldberg, former owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain (Reader)
Helfman family of Miami. (Reader)
Saul Katz, co-owner of the New York Mets.
Irwin Kellner, of Port Washington. (Reader)
Carl and Ruth Shapiro, donors to Brandeis University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Boston Globe reported on Saturday that the Shapiro family foundation lost almost half its money, or about $145 million.
Fairfield County, Connecticut. Bloomberg: First Selectman Ken Flatto and other elected officials in Fairfield, Connecticut, thought the 58,000- person town’s pension fund was holding up well amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The 18 percent decline in total assets since the end of June looked smart compared with the 31 percent plunge in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, and total assets of $286 million left a cushion over the $270 million of estimated liabilities. Flatto’s mood darkened yesterday when he heard Bernard Madoff, a Wall Street executive who oversaw $42 million of the assets, had been arrested and charged with fraud. “We classified this on our portfolio as one of the more conservative investments,” Flatto said in an interview. “You rely on your experts and your managers to be honest.”
Various Boston families: The Boston Globe.
Jeff Katzenberg. Dreamworks CEO has "millions" in Madoff losses. (WSJ)
Gerald Breslauer. Jeff Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg's financial advisor. WSJ: According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Breslauer himself has likely sustained heavy losses in the Madoff affair. He customarily invests alongside his clients, say these people, and has sometimes been a larger investor than the people he represented. People familiar with the matter said Mr. Breslauer was known to be a Madoff investor.

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183 Comments (page 2 of 2)
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 5:21 AM
Many of these greedy investors were very pleased with Made-off's results. They just thought he was using the trading order flow from his securities firm to run a lucrative insider-trading operation, and they were happy to get a piece of it. They were part and parcel to the criminal activities. In this case the hunters got captured by the game! The ends justify the means.
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 5:21 AM
Many of these greedy investors were very pleased with Made-off's results. They just thought he was using the trading order flow from his securities firm to run a lucrative insider-trading operation, and they were happy to get a piece of it. They were part and parcel to the criminal activities. In this case the hunters got captured by the game! The ends justify the means.
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 5:24 AM
Can anyone on this message board translate the Asian post above? I have no idea if it's Chinese, Japanese, Korean or whatever. I think whoever posts to this board should do it in English!
David Stern said:
Dec. 15, 5:50 AM
I just love it. Madoff has proved without a doubt that there is a sucker born every minute. Funnier still the amazingly dumb managers who rely on say-so's and maybe a crystal ball at UBS & BNP Paribas to make investment decisions and the gloriously inept Ernst & Young & Luxembourg will continue to do business as fools who will not learn a thing from this outright theft, will still pour in their money into these "Investment Banks" and rely on these "Audit firm's" reviews and audits. What a joke? Did UBS and BNP ever hear of the 40s Act? PPM? Audited Financials? Where was the SEC & FINRA on all this? Why were they sleeping? These idiots who lost their money deserved to, for being so utterly stupid and dumb as door knobs. I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell - really cheap. Interested?
chaim said:
Dec. 15, 6:03 AM
FedUp, you are one of the signature retards in these threads. You read a single article that says a FEW of his investors thought he was plying some illicit strategy and because you have the brainpower of a flea, you translate that to mean ALL his investors were banking on that. MOST of them were not. They just thought the man was good at his job. And they thought they could trust him because... I don't know, he was THE FUCKING FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE NASDAQ??? No, nobody lent this guy any credibility. "Part and parcel of the criminal activities" - man, you spout a lot of bullshit. That is cockamamie nonsense. AND BLODGET, WAKE THE FUCK UP - YOUR BOARDS ARE PRACTICALLY A G-D NEO-NAZI RALLY. NICE SITE YOU RUN.
chaim said:
Dec. 15, 6:30 AM
Sorry - if I could edit that last post, I would. Got a little worked up.
Felix said:
Dec. 15, 6:36 AM
Why didn't the auditors smell the rat? Charging millions for a lousy job. The same as the rating agencies didn't do their job properly with the subprimes and other vehicles. If you want to make money, do it yourself or keep it in cash or short term deposits. Rather earn a lousy percentage than loosing a lot.
TS said:
Dec. 15, 6:59 AM
Nordea Bank just reported exposure of 48 million € to Madoff "giant ponzi scheme" this morning.
Company Clerk said:
Dec. 15, 7:00 AM
I wonder how many of the folks who lost big were Obama supporters? Welcome to the world of wealth redistribution, baby!
richard said:
Dec. 15, 7:37 AM
What is sad and alarming is that 1. those who have aspired to wealth have graduated to greed and have the audacity of self-righteousness to declare it s Virtue 2. this culture of corruption has successfully gamed the system so that instead of a level and honest business environment where work, productivity and fellowship prevail...the concentration of wealth has succeeded in diverting all revenue to fewer and fewer---who then buy our politicians ("representatives") 3.The fewer and fewer then feed on each other.... 4.The only available employment? King or servant 5. When we plant and nourish our intelligence and goodwill then we will have a crop that goes around 6.So long as we make absurdly enriched and glorified Heros out of sports standouts, CEOs, 90210, and Rappers...the longer we languish ...bottom feeding
richard said:
Dec. 15, 7:47 AM
As a middle aged man born into a loving Jewish family and raised in Bigotville...right here in the Good Ole USA--which the writers to this very remote space keep alive and well... I can only posit that whatever special or "chosen" powers we may possess for feats of self-enrichment were forged in fire as we were ghettoed, murdered, burned, tortured, dismembered, experimented on and our flesh "cleansed" from the "enlightened" communities we were locked out of... So we huddled a little and studied a lot...knowing it would take extra resources---for--US--just to survive... So go ahead...pick on Bernie as if his "chosen" birth as "one of us" had any place in the World--after all that we've endured because of JC's claim to fame thousands of ancient years and stories--LONG AGO. It would be nice--one day--to live in REAL TIME... person to person
mark said:
Dec. 15, 7:52 AM
greed..greed greed greed greed greed
sean o'grady said:
Dec. 15, 8:08 AM
Jews do not conspire with each other in business. Absolutely not. If anything, they compete with each other at a higher level than they do non-Jews. Look at industries where Jewish people predominate. They batter each other. The insular Jews are the old world orthodox that barely exist anymore. This conspiracy theory is nonsense. I see it every day.
Very Humorous said:
Dec. 15, 10:02 AM
I think it is extremely funny that Henry Blodget is covering a story about a 50 bil fraud. This is America. Let the buyer beware!
A. Stein said:
Dec. 15, 10:13 AM
Jewish power baby, Jewish power. Long love Israel and Zionism. We have the world by the balls and we can squeeze them as much as we want and the best part is no one dare stand up to us. We've got all of Europe grovelling at our feet. Screw your UN, NATO & EU. Damn! we own the US and the White House, we own Wall Street, we own the media and we own the world. So shut up and suck it up. We own you.
just desserts said:
Dec. 15, 10:25 AM
mr.stein... u r a fool.join the rest of the line of fools. everyone lies and cheats and steals . made off was just better at it...my question is this is no one man operation ...impossible... so who else steps up to the plate and gets their just desserts as well
milly said:
Dec. 15, 10:59 AM
Anything else come out yet....drugs prostitution?
concerned said:
Dec. 15, 11:01 AM
bernie when is to much to much and what have you done to your freinds, family and faith shame on you
chaim said:
Dec. 15, 12:18 PM
I do not wish I could edit my comments about fed up, however. He remains a signature retard, and those points still stand.
samuel said:
Dec. 15, 12:26 PM
I applaud A. Stein's unvarnished candor and affirm the 'forged in fire' thesis of Richard. Centuries of isolation has birthed a formidable and cohesive group. Nor do I dispute the competitiveness within the group itself. One must marvel at the prowess and acumen of this exceptional tribe. My only point is that for us, the unwashed goyim, it does us well to understand that this in fact a tribe and that we are being offered a rare glimpse into an internecine tribal betrayal. What will be interesting is to watch how the media takes great pains to dance around this very basic truth. Every article in the mainstream press will be an artful dance around theis 500-pound elephant.
cmmtgnmn said:
Dec. 15, 12:27 PM
The trick is not done yet; the money changed hands upwards and abroad [earlier=richer] and obama and his team will eventually bail out the [some] losers and all will flee to israel and/or south america. The money to bail out will be loaned from the fed and the poor suckers [you] will pay. Thats tripple.
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 12:49 PM
Chaim-you have an extremely FOUL mouth. Get some soap immediately! You should be thrown off this message board. My view points will NOT change. I'm watching the onion get peeled and all of these greedy peoples' stories are coming out. They're not going to have a soft landing and they're not going to have a very happy new year. I'm loving it!
Bill said:
Dec. 15, 12:50 PM
Does anyone else find it ironic that Henry Blodget is compiling this list?
Writing Frontier (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 12:55 PM
All of this was foretold in Bernie's horoscope for 2009. You need only read about it at http://saturdaymorningpost.com/horoscope-2009/ Unfortunately for him, he did exactly what his horoscope said he should not do.
Goldblum said:
Dec. 15, 12:57 PM
Proud of my Jewish community and proud of Zionism proud of my race and proud of Israel. You can't touch us. We are the chosen ones. Admit it We hold the world in the palm of our hands. There will be no indictment of Maddof. I can guarantee it. No one dare. Not only do we own the media we also own your church and your state. We control the senate and the house one way or another. Makes no difference who comes to power Democrat or Republican, the real power is ours. Ultimately they come to us for our blessings. We do make governments shake in their boots. We are the king makers for every government. You all work for us one way or another. We do own everyone and all that they own.
joe3H said:
Dec. 15, 1:04 PM
you ever hear the one about the rabbi and the priest that walked into the orphanage the priest was like lets screw them the rabbi responded... "out of what"?
Political Amazon said:
Dec. 15, 1:09 PM
"could be larger than Enron": http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122909368630101789.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ------------ I wonder if, like Enron, Bush Jr knew months ahead of time that this was going on, but sat silently while investors continued to be defrauded of their investments.
Arhata Osho (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 1:20 PM
Money is illusion. Love and awareness are all that can be taken with anyone. http://www.freedomofspeech.netfirms.com/
Arhata Osho (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 1:20 PM
Money is illusion. Love and awareness are all that can be taken with anyone. http://www.freedomofspeech.netfirms.com/
chaim said:
Dec. 15, 1:44 PM
FedUp, you're a despicable anti-semite AND a retard. "Is that what they teach at bar mitzvah studies?" Yeah, I caught that one. And my post explains why the drivel that you've been posting - on multiple threads - is total garbage. You and your anti-semitism should be taking that long walk off a short pier.
robert said:
Dec. 15, 1:47 PM
Greed knows no bounds. Screw 'em all. Welcome to my world.
Dinosaur Trader (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 2:09 PM
Call me a dick, but seeing Rennert on that list brought a smile to my lips. If only they could knock down his 130k square foot house and bring back the dunes. -DT
Ronniew said:
Dec. 15, 2:14 PM
Some of you do not realize there are many investers who thought they were getting safe and moderate returns. My wife and I were investing with the Madoff company for over twenty years. We are two hard working people who live below our means, saved our money, educated our children. We are not in our 60's and are financially ruined. We did not do anything wrong. We may have been foolish in investing with Madoff without doing due dillergence. But to be perfectly frank, I'm not savey enough to have thought it was necessary. The SEC investigated him 18 months ago and found zero. Great institution. By the way, I am Jewish, and I'm a hard working and good person without predjudises. I wish I could say I'm surprised by some of the bigotry shown by some of you. When someone is down, you are the type to stand over thme and kick them. There is a special place for peope like you.
PirateofManhattan said:
Dec. 15, 2:22 PM
Who cares I have lost, its only money.No more Golf and Shrimps. Time to have some Tequilla & Tortillas
lou vaccaro said:
Dec. 15, 2:23 PM
This may be the beginning of the end of free mkt calitalism!!I f not, it should lead to life in prison for Madoff and his ilk!!
mike said:
Dec. 15, 2:24 PM
For easier reading, recommend author list victims in alphabetic order. New names could appear at the top then integrated into the compiled alpha list when more identities are uncovered. Right now, everything is mixed up. There's probably a pretty large number of victims. As your list grows longer and longer, it becomes harder and harder for readers to check. TIA
Dave said:
Dec. 15, 2:52 PM
Let me see, $50B worth and folks are saying that it is all gone. The question is, gone where??? Now, don't get me wrong in that a chuck of the 'paper earnings' are definitely gone, since they never really existed in the first place. But the 'real' question is, what has happened to all the principal investment by and from all the folks/institutions? You have all these folks and institutions who pony'ed up 'real' cash. Madoff did his shell game and between himself and his closest, spent some of those holdings. Now are you trying to tell me that Madoff and company blew through $50B? Lets get real here as to what kind of spending it would take to burn through $50B, even over a number of years. Chances are, there is principal left somewhere, whether its $40B or $35B. It is just too much cash for a handful of folks to burn through and show 'nothing' much in return for it all other than a few mansions/really big boats/jewerly and the like. The real question is, where did they 'stash' the majority of the real cash/principal? Madoff and company were not exactly funding the current war(s) in order to burn through that level of cash. The final point is that they have had a long time to figure out how and where to 'hide it'. The challenge now is to 'find it' and not to end up paying it all to the bottom feeding lawyers for searching it out. It's kind of like a happy marriage - it's just too good to be true, which is usually the case. Good Luck to All !!!
David K. Meller said:
Dec. 15, 2:53 PM
One finds it hard to believe that Madoff's victims are alone here. There are probably dozens, perhaps hundreds of other Madoffs lurking in the financial, banking, and real-estate trust and investment businesses--or what is left of them--whose fraud and malfeasance is going to be discovered once difficult conditions halt the sucker baiting of new 'investments' offered by these frauds. One more example of the dangers of fraudulent, unsound, and corrupt paper 'money". You cannot keep the pyramid growing forever.and when it stops, or even slows, there is hell to pay!! PEACE AND FREEDOM!! David K. Meller
Mike said:
Dec. 15, 3:03 PM
Apparently FGG did not have "privileged access" to Bernie's 17th floor This close level of communication and access is the cornerstone of FGG's ongoing relationship with the manager, without which a business relationship with FGG would not exist. A small portion of managers who pass through this basic screening process are considered for further, significant investigation. Some do not progress beyond this stage; some are placed on a watch list for further monitoring. FGG's business model enables the firm to have privileged access to all aspects of a manager's operation and investment process, including security level transparency for risk monitoring purposes.
paco512 said:
Dec. 15, 3:05 PM
I bet that the Tontine returns looked even better... i wonder if Jeffrey Gendell is next??? Just a thought. Returns of 80% a year are hard to believe.
xxx said:
Dec. 15, 3:15 PM
You have missed out the Swiss fund Thema which is also a feeder into Madoff.
suze camo said:
Dec. 15, 3:19 PM
Schedenfreude....or however you spell it. I guess the Rich do eat their own...
Tim Finley said:
Dec. 15, 3:30 PM
Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, said: "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves". Matthew 6:19-20
Suze Camo said:
Dec. 15, 3:31 PM
Chris Cox (Head of the S.E.C.) should be put in Prison for the rest of his life. What an Idiot. For the "heck of a job," he did. Not only did the S.E.C. not notice that this Madoff character was running this so called "Ponzi scheme" he allowed the banks to extend credit of 110% on their overvalued homes and either sell the mortgages to Fannie and Freddie who in turn bundled the mortgages into Triple A securities rated by the Ratings Agencies, Moody's, etc. These bundled Triple A securities or derivatives were sold all over the world to financial institutions and to investors. Not only were these dubious securities sold but they were backed by so called "credit default swaps" by AIG and others. Warren Buffett called these derivatives and credit default swaps, Financial Weapons of mass destruction. Noriel Roubini of NYU predicted this disaster as did many others in the financial world. No one paid attention to these people who gave these warnings. Also, Alan Greenspan kept lowering the interest rates which fed the fire. Now the working slob has to suffer for the sins of the Giant Financial Institutions. So now it's the GM. Ford, Chrysler workers fault because they "make too much money." Give me a break.
Fred Nanus said:
Dec. 15, 3:43 PM
What Mr. Madoff did was an absolute tragedy. He took away people's life savings and subjected some of them to poverty in their later years. He brought great shame to his name to his family and to his people. He will be punished to the fullest extent of the law and will be remembered only for the grand theft of billions of dollars. The lesson to be learned here is that you must do your due diligence. If the investment returns are too great year after year from investing with a money manager or anyone else obviously there is something wrong. Never invest a large proportion of your wealth with any one person. Never tell a book by its cover. Mr. Madoff apparently outwardly was a very nice guy and so was Ted Bundy and Jack the Ripper. In this life, very sadly, you must trust very few people. Mr Madoff was the one who worshipped the golden calf (that was referred to in the Bible) as Moses brought down the Ten Commandments that was given to him by G-D. There is nothing more to be said except May G-D have mercy on his eternal soul for the horrible deeds( of robbing innocent people of their life savings) that he did on this earth
Werner said:
Dec. 15, 4:08 PM
Madoff, Goldberg, Feinstein, Siverberg. You get it?
Dave said:
Dec. 15, 4:10 PM
Looks like Bernard Madoff had his own program to redistribute wealth.
John Taylor said:
Dec. 15, 4:19 PM
Greed and arrogance doesn't come in one color or faith. Wrong, it does in this case
larry r said:
Dec. 15, 4:25 PM
hey do you have a place too sleep tonight, enough food in your belly? if so then don't sweat it you might not wake up tommorrow, one day at a time gang
John said:
Dec. 15, 4:28 PM
UBPs losses are not "limited" as per the party line. It was its largest holding in some funds.
Paul (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 4:54 PM
ever since battle of Waterloo this world as we know has been and always is ripped of by the same criminals. When we find courage and clean them out once and for good. I bet you any money you like that the end result of this biggest fraud in human history will be the Third world war
JIM (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 4:56 PM
Before anyone cries a tear for the “victims” of Bernie’s scam keep in mind that all of them were content with the big payoffs Bernie provided for years. Everyone one of them must have known that the card game was rigged in Bernie’s favor but decided to let it ride as long as they were the beneficiaries of Bernie’s “good fortune” at the card table. Have no sympathy for these sniveling vermin
Frank said:
Dec. 15, 4:57 PM
Remember that rich stealing from rich is not a crime. He will get a fine. So this means that there will be more hi-end property available in Manhattan. Hi rewards, hi risk! Bail was set at $10 Million on $50 Billion. I would keep an eye on his personal jet. If he flies to Mexico, he can fly to CUBA. From there he can go anywhere in the world undetected.
jim said:
Dec. 15, 5:00 PM
ok, so who gets the street sign at 3rd ave and 53rd street???
Tim Finley said:
Dec. 15, 5:06 PM
I spent 20 years as a Wall Street guy, but got so sick of the greed that I got out. Me, Me, Me, More, More, More, Take, Take, Take! I sleep well now.
Dave said:
Dec. 15, 5:08 PM
So why is it that an honest, hard working, financial advisor like myself who has been in the business 23 years can't have a client list like Madoff's when my clients actually do make money? I don't have a yacht, drive a fancy car, or make false promises, so I guess that doesn't impress prospective clients. Too bad.
Tim Finley said:
Dec. 15, 5:12 PM
Dave, You don't want those kind of people. I know some and they are brutal people. Stay small and help the small guy.
greensleeves said:
Dec. 15, 5:16 PM
Here are some more I have seen mentioned: RBS $600MM, BBVA $400MM, Natexis $400MM, Access International Advisors $1.4B, Benbassset Cie $935MM,
Dave said:
Dec. 15, 5:29 PM
Trying Tim. It's tough these days just trying to stay afloat as an independent. I've got ideas that have worked & are working now, but it doesn't do much good without willing participants. The reset button has been pushed in spite of all the bad news, there is opportunity aplenty out there.
Paul said:
Dec. 15, 5:41 PM
I once lent Madoff $22.50 and he never paid me back. What a bum!
Richard E. Barsom said:
Dec. 15, 6:03 PM
Yo, This means a lot of people are gonna get coal in thier stockings this year.
jim said:
Dec. 15, 6:11 PM
Have you ever thought that Wall Street could be selling and shorting stock that is not there, I sell stock but never see the certificates If I remember thats what happened to the Hunt brothers it seems to me Wall Street was selling contracts of silver knowing few people took the contracts but when the brothers wanted the Silver there never wasn't any.
Strung said:
Dec. 15, 6:16 PM
he should be castrated with a spoon and hung.
BigRed said:
Dec. 15, 6:40 PM
It looks like many of our semitic brethren got waxed. Pity. Greed conquers all. One can only hope that Bernie caught the UJA in his web. What a guy. He and his sons should get the Saddam & Sons treatment.
John Wilson said:
Dec. 15, 6:43 PM
JEHT Foundation http://www.jehtfoundation.org/news/
Loveda said:
Dec. 15, 6:51 PM
I own stock in Isle of Capri Casinos, which went down today despite a favorable analyst write up. ISLE (symbol) has strong ownership ties in the Palm Beach area, so I am wondering if the company had their cash with Madoff. Any ideas?
de (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 6:56 PM
Dennis Gartman always says; :There never is one cockroach..." Who else, I wonder is pulling this off. Beware of accounts with no daily login to check balances. I recognize that hedgefunds demand position privacy. They should be audited quarterly, though, to ensure the funds are in fact there. This WILL change the industry.
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 6:57 PM
Chaim--I'm NOT taking any walk any time soon to anywhere except to my church where I can thank God I'm not a part of Made-Off and his ilk! btw have you noticed the OTHER comments in these message boards? I'm NOT the only one who strongly believes the same thing.
Fndngbalance said:
Dec. 15, 7:00 PM
This is not the time to put anyone down, rather, it is the time to help and understand one another. We are human, nothing else. Thousands have lost one of life's basic needs, their "financial security". It is difficult to unveil who is in control of the ship, some seem to believe they are. Whoever it is, it does not seem to care about its crew. Allow them to continue sinking those big carriers, in times of need lets just help one another. We need each other to survive these critical tests...Pray for one another, in whathever belief you may have. Let's do it as the great human race that we are....
Invisible said:
Dec. 15, 7:16 PM
Where are the auditors in all this? Don't investment firms/broker or brokerages have to be audited regularly?
Paul said:
Dec. 15, 7:32 PM
Ha-ha-ha-ha! I always have to laugh when rich people lose money! It's great! Oh, I guess I should cry that some bozo lost his trust fund. Boo-hoo! That's TFB! Maybe they can see what it's like down here, actually WORKING for a living, instead of taking the big cash you were born with and speculating with it. DOUCHBAGS!
bailoutqueen said:
Dec. 15, 7:44 PM
Are they going to add Madoff to the Tech Ticker now...with Blodget and Madoff, they'd have a crooked dynamic duo
Bluffguy said:
Dec. 15, 8:05 PM
I do not believe that this was a one man scam. How could the sons be working in the firm and not know what was going on ? There are many people who would have had to know that something was going on, from the person who opens the mail to the person who pays the bills and cuts the checks. It is my guess that these are the people he was trying to get the $300 million to in the last days.
chaim said:
Dec. 15, 8:36 PM
You mean you're not the only disgusting, virulent anti-semite on these boards? Yes, I've noticed. And that's nothing to be proud of. It's revolting.
Miriam said:
Dec. 15, 8:46 PM
What many people coming out with the antisemitic drivel need to realise is that most of the investors who have been scammed were also Jewish - many of them charities. I am willing to give Madoff (hilarious name given the circumstances) the benefit of the doubt personally - I am sure many of these investors did not care how achieved his returns so long as he did achieve them. That would have given him ample reason not to disclose how he was really making the money. They were willing to turn a blind eye when times were good but with current downturn and an increasing number of people seeking redemptions, his scheme quickly unraveled. Perhaps he was a savvy investor in the early days but as he spun himself in a web of lies, found it increasingly difficult to extricate himself. They do need to investigate who knew what and when. The fact that most of his victims were already wealthy and powerful may help in this. The most dangerous consequence of this will probably be a violent backlash - I see it as a real possibility what with the current economic woes and people very angry over the wars in the ME.
Pat Riot said:
Dec. 15, 8:49 PM
Madoff - The Uber of all Uber Jews. What an inside job. Or, should I say an incest job. It's hard to believe that Bernie is the only one guilty of this covert scheme that went on for years. That's a fine example of a covert scheme. It's obvious who's guilty of the greatest overt scheme - the Federal Reserve System, its banking affiliates and politicians. Guilty too. They should reopen all the abandoned U.S. military bases, convert them into gulag camps and send all these corrupt and greedy bastards to a 6'x9' cell. That will also include the politicians who were, and still are, in collusion. This would have to happen - to protect them and possibly their families from a tidal wave of retribution that is about to unfold. When people loose everything - they loose it.
Emma said:
Dec. 15, 8:56 PM
Interesting that a Jewish man, madoff, cheated mostly other Jewish people and organizations. Does this qualify as a self-perpetrated financial holocaust of Jewry?
Miriam said:
Dec. 15, 9:01 PM
Emma : This would not be the first time. There was a lot more collusion in the real holocaust than most people know about. In the end, whether it's war or fraud, it's really all about theft. Of fellow Jews, of Christians, of anyone who gets in their way.
Opportunistic Gold Man said:
Dec. 15, 9:05 PM
Hmmmm. Jewish financial genocide? What a concept ... now we can have our own museum named after it. I'll establish the foundation - near Wall Street, but first I need some investors. Any takers?
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 9:13 PM
chaim--I'm STILL loving it! Today we find Made-off screwed Steven Spielberg! When do your ilk ever STOP and learn to respect others, whether they're a part of your faith or not? I'm not anti-Semitic. Some of my best friends are U.S. born citizens who are of Lebanese descent and that makes them Semites!
Friedrich Paul Berg (URL) said:
Dec. 15, 9:15 PM
I'm really starting to like this guy, Maddox. Is he an anti-Semite, or a neo-Nazi, or a holocaust denier? Perhaps we can make Maddox an honorary "holocaust-denier?" What do you think, folks?
FedUp said:
Dec. 15, 9:38 PM
the most recent news flash is that a federal judge in NY gave the greedy investors the protection of the Securities Investors Protection Act, which in the end gives them protection from their creditors as in bankruptcy filings but in this case the "victims" will see some money but not all and it may take them a good while to collect. This is relative to the Bayou Securities Hedge Fund fiasco a couple of years ago. Those who pulled from the Made-off scheme up to two years ago and had knowledge of his scam may have to make restitution to the others who held on. Read here: http://www.bnet.com/2407-14037_23-255582.html
L E V I A T H A N said:
Dec. 15, 10:28 PM
Delighted, truly delighted.