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Muck Tracker Ezra Merkin and Bernard Madoff
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Larry Ellison Was Top Paid Ceo in Study
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Trading legend Bernard Madoff charged with ‘massive’ securities fraud
Bernard L. Madoff, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and a former NASDAQ governor, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with multi-billion-dollar criminal securities fraud.
A complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Madoff told two senior employees Wednesday that his business was “a giant Ponzi scheme” that had lost $50 billion over a period of years, that he had “absolutely nothing” and “it’s all just one big lie.”
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(requires Java)MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.The disclosure came after the 70-year-old founder had tried to hand out early bonuses to employees. When questioned by the senior employees, he reportedly said he had a couple of hundred million dollars left and wanted to distribute it before turning himself in to authorities.
The senior employees understood him to be saying that he had been paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors, according to the SEC complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.
“We are alleging a massive fraud — both in terms of scope and duration,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “We are moving quickly and decisively to stop the fraud and protect remaining assets for investors, and we are working closely with the criminal authorities to hold Mr. Madoff accountable.”
The SEC is seeking emergency relief for investors, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm.
Regulatory filings show the Madoff firm had more than $17 billion in assets under management as of the beginning of 2008. It appears that virtually all assets of the advisory business are missing, the SEC complaint said.
Madoff Investment Securities is one of the largest independent trading firms in the securities industry. The company web site says that its clients include “scores of leading securities firms, banks and financial institutions from across the United States and around the world.”
Madoff appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Eaton and was charged with a single count of securities fraud. He was released on a $10-million bond guaranteed by his wife and two others, according to Bloomberg News.
“Bernard Madoff is a longstanding leader in the financial services industry,” said defense attorney Dan Horwitz. “We will fight to get through this unfortunate set of events. He’s a person of integrity.”
Madoff started his firm in 1960 with $5,000 of savings and took advantage of securities-law changes in the 1970s designed to spur competition in U.S. stock markets, according to a profile posted on the web site Finance Tech.
He was chief of the Securities Industry Association’s trading committee in the 1990s and early this decade, where he represented brokerage firms in discussions with regulators about new stock-market rules as electronic-trading systems and networks gained prominence.
He was also a member of NASDAQ Stock Market’s board of governors and its executive committee and served as chairman of its trading committee.
The firm’s web site boasts of the firm’s “high ethical standards.”
“Clients know that Bernard Madoff has a personal interest in maintaining the unblemished record of value, fair-dealing, and high ethical standards that has always been the firm’s hallmark.”
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This post is tagged with: , Bernard L. Madoff, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Crime, Recent StoriesRead related stories: Crime · Recent Stories
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Bailout’s toughest critics were Republicans from states with foreign automakersDecember 13, 2008 at 8:29am
Longtime House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill once declared, “All politics is local.” So it should come as no surprise that the loudest opponents to the bailout plan for the Big Three automakers were Republican senators whose states are home to factories run by Detroit’s foreign competitors.
Muck Tracker Senate Report Holds Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse
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Jesse Jackson Jrs Prospects Likely Damaged by Blagojevich Investigation
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Bernard Madoff Charged With 50 Billion Securities Fraud
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Obamas Push for Ethics Bill Spurred Blagojevichs Unraveling
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Muck Tracker Obama Calls for Gov Blagojevich to Resign
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Rod Blagojevich Accused of Trying to Sell Obamas Senate Seat
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Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald Goes After His Second Illinois Governor
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Gingrich Hit Politicians Beholden to Freddie Mac While Working As a Pitchman
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Blackberry Owners Arent Happy With David Pogue
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Will Us Ambassadors Be Pros or Patrons Under Obama
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Muckety Movers Rumsfeld
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Va Businessman Earl Stafford Treats Poor Dispossessed to Obama Inaugural
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Attorney Marc Dreier Arrested in Canada
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Hillary Clinton Races Against Deadline to Defray Campaign Debt
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David Plouffe to Pen First Inside Account of Obama Campaign
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Big three auto chiefs won’t have easy time unloading jets
This time round, the chiefs of Detroit’s big three automakers arrived in the nation’s Capitol like supplicants – transported in hybrid cars, rather than private jets.
Rick Wagoner of General Motors Corp. offered lawmakers a list of austerity measures – among them, the planned shuttering of GM’s corporate aviation services.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive map
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(requires Java)MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.After being skewered by Congress and even by Saturday Night Live last month, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company had already announced plans to sell his company’s fleet of five corporate planes (although his pay of $22.8 million last year included $752,203 for his personal use of a corporate jet).
Turns out, though, neither company’s move may bring in significant cash, reports Dealscape. The reason: the market is flooded with jets recently put up for sale by dozens of squeezed corporate chieftains.
Troubled banking giant Citigroup has quietly put up two planes for sale – luxuriously-outfitted Falcon 900EXs, according to online advertisements and public records. While the planes’ asking prices are not listed, similar aircraft are advertised for $30 million, according to CNN.
The problem is the sudden upsurge in supply has meant falling prices for everyone.
In a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, Lehman Brothers sought approval to sell one of its corporate jets, a Dassault Falcon 50, for the apparently bargain-basement price of $6.2 million.
In its motion to the court, Lehman blamed a saturated market for the low price. The failed investment firm said it had been marketing the jet since September. But as time passed, the plane’s valuation only fell further.
“[Lehman] is aware of at least 38 Falcon 50 aircraft being actively marketed – more than a two-year supply at the current pace of sales,” the bank said, noting that even more were “being more quietly marketed.”
The court rubberstamped the sale.
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This post is tagged with: Alan Mulally, Business, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corp., Lehman Brothers, Recent Stories, Rick WagonerRead related stories: Business · Recent Stories0 Comments
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Hillary Clinton races against deadline to defray campaign debtDecember 5, 2008 at 5:26pm
Hillary and Bill Clinton have stepped up their efforts to retire millions of dollars in campaign debt from her failed bid for the White House before she becomes the nation’s top diplomat.
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3 Comments
#1. P Roberts 12.11.2008
amazing; the tragic thing to think about is the loss in total human life that it will take to make up for this guy’s Madoff’s thievery
#2. Stu 12.12.2008
I keep wondering where all the money went? If it was a ponzi scheme then I guess the early investors made out and the later folks will be getting screwed. $50b is a lot of bananas!
#3. Mike 12.13.2008
How can this man be allowed to make bail at 10 million dollars (by his wife!!???) … Isn’t that money the investors – who he stole? I
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