"US backs ‘extraordinary’ leniency in sentence for Madoff aide" by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times | February 20, 2010
NEW YORK - Prosecutors expect to recommend “extraordinary’’ leniency for Frank DiPascali Jr., who has admitted being Bernard Madoff’s crucial lieutenant in history’s largest Ponzi scheme, according to documents made public in federal court in Manhattan yesterday.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Madoff's Little Helpers
DiPascali, who is facing up to 125 years in prison, “has already provided substantial assistance to the government in its investigation and prosecution of others’’ and “it is likely his cooperation will result in an extraordinary letter’’ in support of a lower sentence, prosecutors reported.
The disclosure was made in a letter submitted under seal to Judge Richard J. Sullivan of US District Court in December. The rest of the 10-page letter apparently described the specific help provided by DiPascali, but the details remain secret.
That's because they go after the true culprit or get the money back.
All it takes is a little investigation!
To release the details now would cause “significant harm’’ to the government’s criminal investigation of the enormous Ponzi scheme operated by Madoff, prosecutors told Sullivan.
The letter was submitted as part of government and defense efforts to win DiPascali’s release on bail pending his sentencing later this year on securities fraud and conspiracy charges.
Those efforts, rebuffed twice by Sullivan, were finally successful last week after significantly tighter conditions were proposed and accepted.
The restrictions include a $10 million personal bond, home detention with an electronic monitoring device in place, and close surveillance by federal agents.
And YOU are PICKING UP the TAB for it all, taxpayers!
Although Sullivan agreed that the new package was adequate to ensure that DiPascali would not flee, he expressed intense dissatisfaction with the bail arrangement that the defendant has negotiated with prosecutors.
In his order approving bail, Sullivan said he nevertheless “believes that the government’s decision to endorse (and enhance) defendant’s bail proposal - and that endorsement is critical to the current application - is misguided.’’
Allowing DiPascali to remain with his family for a substantial period before he is sentenced to what may be a life sentence gives him “an early down payment on a sentencing reduction not yet earned,’’ the judge wrote.
That “sends the wrong message to the defendant’s victims and the public at large.’’
Prosecutors have said that DiPascali will be better able to assist their investigation if he is freed from custody until he is sentenced.
--more--"
So who is he turning over to the feds?
"Madoff aide faces criminal charges; SEC calls him key in fraud case" by David B. Caruso, Associated Press | February 26, 2010
NEW YORK - Bernard Madoff’s claim to have pulled off his multibillion dollar swindle without assistance fell apart further yesterday, as one of his longtime aides was charged with helping him cook the books.
Daniel Bonventre, an accountant who worked for Madoff since the late 1960s, was arrested early Thursday at his home in Manhattan, authorities said. He faces conspiracy, securities fraud, and tax charges. The 63-year-old was also sued yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused Bonventre of falsifying records both to disguise Madoff’s fraud and illegally enrich himself.
Related: U.S. Government Knew About Madoff Scheme Since 1960
Bonventre said nothing to reporters after making his initial court appearance on the charges in the afternoon. A judge freed him on a $5 million bond, secured by $2 million in assets. His lawyer, Andrew Frisch, declined to comment. As they announced the charges, authorities said their investigation has shown that Madoff needed a team of enablers to carry out his massive crime, including people working on the purportedly “legitimate’’ side of the family business, which processed stock trades. Prosecutors said that, with Bonventre’s knowledge, hundreds of millions of dollars were siphoned out of accounts belonging to Madoff’s clients and used to support the other operations at Bernard Madoff Investment Securities. In some cases, he used client money as collateral to obtain loans....
Investigators didn’t say how many other people on the supposedly legitimate side of the operation, which was overseen by Madoff’s sons and brother, might have been aware of the fraud. No members of Madoff’s family have been charged. In a criminal complaint, however, prosecutors said Bonventre helped arrange millions of dollars in illegal payments and loans to certain unidentified employees and Madoff relatives. Some of the funds were used to buy luxury homes....
Why unidentified, unless.... someone is protecting organized crime and actually covering up for it.
Anyone else?
"Two ex-Madoff programmers indicted" by Bloomberg News | March 18, 2010
NEW YORK — Two former computer programmers for convicted money manager Bernard Madoff were indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan.
Jerome O’Hara, 47, and George Perez, 44, had been previously charged in the case. They are accused of developing and maintaining the computer programs used in Madoff’s fraudulent investment advisory business....
-- more --"And seeing as it was mostly you-know-whos (rhymes with) getting ripped off they have Washington on the case:
"Madoff victims find allies in D.C.; Stanford investors join lobby effort" by Robert Schmidt and Jesse Westbrook, Bloomberg News | March 11, 2010
WASHINGTON — Victims of Bernard Madoff and accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford are banding together to lobby Congress for a law that could require Wall Street firms to pay billions of dollars to cover some of the losses they suffered.
Related: The Stanford-Madoff Connection
As the groups’ leaders walked the Capitol halls separately over the past several months, they learned how to find the Senate’s Dirksen Office Building and to call their proposal “revenue neutral,’’ meaning no cost to taxpayers. They also gleaned another lesson: The broader the geographic base of support, the better the chance of legislative success.
The result is a coalition of the Democratic-backed, East Coast investors defrauded by Madoff, with the Republican-backed Sunbelt residents victimized by Stanford. The disparate groups now find themselves bound by a common notion: They’ve been cheated, and they want the government to make them whole.
Why should TAXPAYERS have to pay for THEIR STUPIDITY?
Just take the f***ing loss like the rest of us, sorry!!!
“We had been trying for a year, breaking our necks to get attention from Democratic members,’’ said Angela Shaw, 40, of Dallas, whose family lost $4.5 million in the Texas-based Stanford’s alleged fraud. “We realized that working together, maybe these things will be heard.’’
Together, the groups hope to persuade Congress to add a requirement to the regulatory overhaul bill, now under Senate consideration, that brokerage firms pay about $4 billion in additional fees to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation fund. The fund protects US investors’ accounts against fraud or bankruptcy. The victims also want Congress to require the fund to compensate them up to $500,000 each in losses.
The lobbying initiative “gives new meaning to the word chutzpah,’’ said James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law. “This is just a tax increase. It’s levied on banks, but customers end up paying.’’
Yup. We even get the word and everyone knows that is what Washington does.
Until recently, the two groups were going at it alone and not winning much support, except from lawmakers in their regions. Shaw’s Stanford group had backing from Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and other panel Republicans like Bob Corker of Tennessee, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, said Shaw, also a spokeswoman at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “These are very Christian people,’’ Shaw said. “The Stanford securities were marketed to many members at church.’’
What she needed was Democratic votes. An aide to Vitter suggested she join forces with Helen Davis Chaitman, 68, a New York Madoff victim leading a similar effort. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, the banking committee’s chairman, and other panel Democrats such as Charles Schumer of New York, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and Robert Menendez of New Jersey were sympathetic to Chaitman’s cause. The Madoff victims also hired professional lobbyists in December. One of their advocates, Russ Klenet, has his own history with Ponzi schemes.
Don't you wish people would go LOBBY for YOU, average American?
Klenet, of Russ Klenet and Associates in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., lobbied for Mutual Benefits Corp., whose executives in 2005 settled for $25 million an SEC complaint that they defrauded 31,000 investors of more than $1 billion. The company sold investments in life insurance policies that were purchased from terminally ill people....
How come in this GREAT ECONOMY there are SO MANY LIARS and THIEVES?
This is the BEST we can DO?
The Senate Banking Committee, which has been negotiating privately for months on the details of the regulatory bill, has not met formally to discuss the victims’ request. The House in December passed an overhaul measure without any restitution.
--more--"
Also see: AmeriKan MSM Concealing Obama-Stanford Link
Whether it is taking campaign cash from Goldman or this, Obama is up to it in his eyeballs. You are not buying the bull coming out of Washington, are you?
This next item made me laugh.
"Fake restitution website targets Madoff’s victims" by Beth Healy, Globe Staff | March 10, 2010
As if things weren’t tough enough for Bernie Madoff’s victims: Scam artists have created a faux website mimicking that of the agency handling claims for the swindler’s investors.
Yup, the poor, looted and looting Jews. Sigh. Kind of sick of it, readers. Really, really sick of the Jewish supremacism that passes itself off as news here.
The phony group has created a website that looks similar to the one run by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. The real SIPC is an insurance fund that covers up to $500,000 of investor losses if a brokerage firm fails. Yesterday, the SIPC said a fraudulent group had set up the website I-SIPC.com and was attempting to lure Madoff’s victims.
Among the claims on the fraudulent website: that $1.3 billion hidden by Madoff in Malaysia has been found. The phony group claims to have ties to the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. In a statement, the SIPC’s president, Stephen Harbeck, said, “This bogus group is already attempting to obtain funds and confidential financial information from investors in the U.S.’’ He said Madoff’s victims and others should not reveal any personal financial data on the I-SIPC site or rely upon it as a source of information. “We intend to use every available means to shut down this illicit operation,’’ Harbeck said.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission issued a statement about the group’s posing as an international branch of the SIPC. “Never underestimate the creativity and duplicity of con artists,’’ the SEC said. “They will do anything to separate you from your money and securities....’’
You need not worry in my case.
--more--"
And I couldn't care less about his "kin."
"Madoff kin fighting civil complaints" by Associated Press | March 17, 2010
Madoff, his brother Peter, and sons Mark and Andrew have all insisted the three were purposely left in the dark. While the FBI says its investigation is ongoing, none of the family members have been charged with any crimes. The motions to dismiss the trustees’ complaints portray the brother and sons — who ran a separate market-making and proprietary-trading business they insist was legitimate — as victims of the scheme.
They were living a pretty good life working for Dad, right?
Pfft!
The court papers credit the sons with contacting “authorities within hours of learning of their father’s betrayal of their trust.’’
Yeah, okay.
--more--"
And look at the state authorities move for certain people, 'eh?
"Conn. sues over Madoff losses; Seeks $16m in fees from bank, adviser" by Globe Wire Services | April 20, 2010
HARTFORD — Connecticut’s attorney general sued a Fairfield County bank and investment adviser yesterday, contending that they “aided and abetted’’ disgraced financier Bernard Madoff’s massive investment fraud....
--more--"And the guy the authorities wouldn't listen to:
"Hunting fraud beyond Madoff; Whistle-blower says SEC still falling short" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | March 2, 2010
Harry Markopolos, the Bay State whistle-blower who repeatedly and unsuccessfully warned the Securities and Exchange Commission about Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, says he and his investigative team have uncovered a raft of new multibillion-dollar frauds.
“I have many Medicare fraud and pension fraud cases’’ involving billions of dollars, the 53-year-old Whitman resident said in an interview yesterday. Markopolos was promoting his book about the Madoff case, “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller,’’ scheduled to be released today.
Oh, he is promoting a book, I see. I'll bet the Globe really doesn't like this guy.
In the first new case to become public, the independent financial investigator said it was his team that uncovered alleged fraud related to $35 billion in currency trades made by Boston’s State Street Corp. for California’s two largest pension systems.
One of Boston's most respected firms?
Markopolos, who said he has a network of tipsters who alerted him to the scheme, alleged that State Street falsely reported receiving the worst possible prices for currency trades on behalf of the pension funds, and pocketed the difference....
Markopolos, who tried for more than eight years to persuade the SEC to investigate Madoff, gained international fame after the Ponzi scheme collapsed. He told Congress that he had sent a list of 30 red flags about Madoff’s investments to the SEC, but the agency still refused to take action.
And they knew all about it since the 1960s.
They IGNORED HIM, readers!
And we all know why!
But in addition to chronicling his efforts to expose Madoff’s pyramid fraud, Markopolos spends much of the book talking about how he feared for his life....
The implication being he might be a little off the rails, right -- even though I'm sure there are certain forces that want him dead.
Lot of light on him, though.
--more--"
And he changed his tune awfully quick(?):
"Markopolos offers guarded praise for SEC; Limited progress made after Madoff, he says" by Beth Healy, Globe Staff | April 2, 2010
Bernard Madoff whistle-blower Harry Markopolos yesterday said the US Securities and Exchange Commission was taking steps to become more effective in the wake of the massive fraud, but those steps were “evolutionary, not revolutionary.’’
Speaking at a conference on ethics hosted by Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School, Markopolos was kinder than usual to the federal regulators he has accused of falling down on the job — some of whom were sitting in the room....
Over a 10-year period, Markopolos had brought his suspicions that Madoff, once a respected investor on Wall Street, was running a fraud to the SEC — to no avail. Markopolos detailed those failed efforts before Congress last year and recently published a book about the experience.
Madoff is serving a life sentence in prison for swindling investors of sums they believed amounted to $65 billion.
Peanuts when you compare it to what Goldman Sachs and Wall Street have done.
Markopolos first caught on to Madoff when he was working for a Boston investment firm that traded securities similar to the ones Madoff had claimed were producing steady results. A Whitman resident, he now runs a business investigating potential financial frauds. Though some of his recommendations are not new, his tone toward the SEC is markedly softer. In his book that was released last month, “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller,’’ Markopolos repeatedly hammered the agency, even after he had been proved right....
What, you are supposed to stop criticizing and let them slide back into the same behavior even after being proved right? Is that the kind of active, engaged citizenry the Globe always claims it wants?
It is the SUBTLE INSULTS and CONDESCENDING TONE that end up souring the whole experience, know what I mean?
At yesterday’s event, Markopolos suggested the SEC should move out of Washington, to New York or Boston, where many of the investment firms the agency regulates are based. He also said the SEC should hire fewer lawyers and more securities industry veterans to police the investment business, and that it should pay more to attract top talent.
He supports the government creating a super-regulator, likening the current patchwork of oversight organizations to US intelligence agencies before 9/11 — unwilling to share information and engaging in turf battles, and leaving Americans vulnerable....
Yeah, right, 9/11 was an "intelligence failure."
Sigh. That is why no one reads newspapers anymore.
Maybe I shouldn't be criticizing the Ziocentric prism of the AmeriKan MSM since those are the only people reading them. Why not give the readership what they want?
A Senate bill sponsored by Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Banking Committee, would make it easier for the government to dismantle giant securities firms that fail, and would more closely monitor hedge funds, derivatives, and systemic risks to the economy. It also would put the consumer regulator inside the Federal Reserve — a move consumer advocates say would weaken the proposed agency....
Yeah, the same government that is the pocket of the banks is going to fix everything, sure.
A federal judge’s decision yesterday in the Bernard Madoff bankruptcy case could mean Carl Shapiro, the Boston philanthropist who reaped $1 billion in profits from investments with the swindler, is a step closer to having to return a portion of that money.
That could spell bad news for some local nonprofit organizations, from hospitals and universities to arts institutions, that are counting on continued payments from Shapiro’s family philanthropy - money that the court ruling may now send elsewhere....
Yeah, ISN'T IT GREAT that Madoff STOLE from PEOPLE so the the benevolent Jew could bestow charity upon you?
What a racket!
Area nonprofits that depended on donations from Boston’s Carl & Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation have either made cuts or found alternative funding sources - many with the foundation’s help - since the philanthropy, a victim of the Ponzi scheme run by former financier Bernard Madoff, said last year it would make no new grants.
The foundation, which lost $145 million in the collapse of Madoff’s scheme, has issued a series of bulletins offering to help former grant recipients find new funders, link with other groups to share resources, or find volunteers and interns.
“One of the things that I really love is, what Shapiro did [was make] the most of a bad situation by saying, ‘Yes, we realize this is a bad situation, but how else can we help you?’ ’’ said Ruby Reyes, coexecutive director of The City School in Dorchester, which teaches teens about social justice. Reyes said she has been in touch with the Shapiro foundation about finding new donors to replace a $25,000 Shapiro grant to run two programs.
Advice and referrals from the Shapiro foundation has helped ease the loss of financial help at a time when nonprofits are struggling to deal the economic downturn and reduced donations in general....
Would you THANK a BANK ROBBER if he gave you "charity?"
Well, I guess maybe you would these days.
How about a GANGSTER that shakes down the neighborhood?
Oh, yeah, people generally do support those who take care of them.
I'm sorry, readers; there just seems something wrong with the paper applauding and approving such things -- especially when we must overthrow dictators who do such things.
The Shapiro foundation ranked among the state’s top 15 givers in 2007, doling out nearly $12.9 million, according to the most recent numbers from the nonprofit Foundation Center, which tracks philanthropies.
ALL STOLEN LOOT, folks!
But was a GOOD THING for a GOOD AGENDA-PUSHING CAUSE, right?
In 2008, the foundation increased its donations, granting more than $17 million to about 190 groups, including such well-known institutions as Brandeis University and the Museum of Fine Arts, and smaller organizations like the domestic violence prevention group Casa Myrna Vazquez and The Theater Offensive in Cambridge.
Yeah, all AGENDA-PUSHING PURPOSES and the favorites of Jews.
It may take some time before the foundation returns to its role as one of the area’s most generous philanthropies.
The thing should be SHUT DOWN!
The Shapiro family, trustees of the foundation and longtime friends of Madoff, personally lost about $400 million and could lose more.
Don't you feel sorry for them -- especially after they STOLE $1 BILLION DOLLARS?
A decision this week from a US Bankruptcy Court judge may compel the family to return a portion of the $1 billion in profits they reaped from Madoff....
Yeah, they REAPED IT, they didn't STEAL IT!!!
Sigh.
--more--"
Related: Firms win bid to block Madoff suits
Why am I not surprised?
Also see: Reason Number Two Why No One Reads the Boston Globe Anymore
That doesn't surprise me, either.
Related:
"The Israeli economy was the last among 29 economies surveyed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to enter into a recession (fourth quarter 2008) and among the first to exit (second quarter 2009), making it by far the shortest downturn among the group."
Well, now you know where all the bailout money went, America.
