Bernie Made-Off

Even by Wall Street’s standards, the Madoff scandal is stunning. It’s hard to imagine anyone with a better reputation than Madoff, and his entire enterprise was a scam. The wealthy enclaves of Florida are especially feeling the effects of Bernie’s downfall. Here’s the Palm Beach Post:

Bernard Madoff didn’t accept money from just anyone. Clients ideally had to have at least $10 million to open an account with his New York investment firm.
While such wealthy people don’t turn up just anywhere, the Palm Beach Country Club provided enough to make Madoff’s membership in the predominantly Jewish club worthwhile.
On Friday, many of those who had considered themselves lucky to invest their millions with the part-time Palm Beacher were calling their accountants, their brokers and each other, wondering whether they had lost it all.
“Everyone is in shock,” said Richard Rampell, a Palm Beach accountant. “They’re embarrassed. They don’t want to believe they got taken.”
But, according to federal investigators, that’s exactly what happened.
“It’s all just one big lie … basically a giant Ponzi scheme,” Madoff told senior employees this week, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in New York City.
The feds swooped in quickly and arrested the 70-year-old, who splits his time between a Manhattan apartment and a $9.3 million mansion on the Intracoastal Waterway just north of Flagler Memorial Bridge. The five-bedroom, seven-bath Palm Beach property once belonged to Herbert and Hilary Pulitzer.
After he told the employees that he had lost $50 billion invested with him, investigators were afraid he would carry through with plans to give the $200 million to $300 million that remained to favored employees, family and friends, according to court documents.
The $50 billion loss, if accurate, would be one of the biggest frauds in history. By comparison, when energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, it had $63.4 billion in assets.

Posted by on December 15th, 2008 at 9:36 am


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