Posted by Cameron @ 3:23 pm on December 13th 2008

Pyramid Scheme, Wall Street Style

Not your average con. The investors in this one lost $50 billion in the outfit that was masquerading as a hedgefund. Check it out.

posted in: Main

8 Comments »

  1. Wow, looks like the failure of this fund took out a supremacist group.

    The news was equally devastating for the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation in Salem, Mass., which works to reverse the dilution of White identity through intermarriage and assimilation by sending teenagers to Germany and supporting other White-identity education efforts.

    The foundation was forced on Friday to dismiss its small staff and shut down its programs to cope with its losses in the Madoff funds, according to Deborah Coltin, its executive director.

    “We’ve canceled everything as of today, everything,” she said tearfully.

    Will these strange twists of fate never stop?

    Grey Lady

    Comment by daveg — 12/13/2008 @ 7:35 pm

  2. Damn, that NYT article is behind a firewall daveg. In any case, now I’m thoroughly confused—did you change the quote to make a point, or is that how it originally appeared? When you read it like that, it sounds like a crazy white supremacist neo-nazi group. But check out their web page.

    We believe that the most serious threat to Jewish continuity is assimilation and intermarriage. We are succeeding in reversing the trend of intermarriage and asimilation in our community by enhancing Jewish pride through the innovative programs of our Youth to Israel, Jewish Continuity and Interfaith Outreach Committees.

    The key to Jewish continuity in the United States is in enhancing and instilling Jewish pride in our children, which is an achievable goal for every Jewish community. Building on the enormous success of our cornerstone program, Youth to Israel, which provides fully subsidized teen trips to Israel, in 1996, the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation expanded its Jewish continuity initiative by creating unique, Jewish, community-wide programs, which enhance Jewish pride, connect people to Israel, and instill a feeling of being a member of the Jewish family—a great and unique people.

    It’s a Jewish pride organization. They don’t send teenagers to Germany to reverse the dilution of white identity, they send teenagers to Israel to reverse the dilution of Jewish identity.

    But, after having read that quote and then looked up the organization in that context…well, if you were monkeying with the quote to make a point, you got me…it’s a damn interesting point.

    Comment by Brad — 12/13/2008 @ 7:47 pm

  3. Yeah, you must have been screwing around to make a point. The MSNBC writeup has a decidedly different take.

    Deborah Coltin learned yesterday morning that the $8 million foundation she has led for a decade, which supported a wide range of Jewish programs on the north shore of Massachusetts, did not actually exist.

    The foundation had invested its endowment with Bernard L. Madoff, a storied name on Wall Street. Every year, Madoff paid out several hundred thousand dollars to the foundation. But on Thursday, Madoff was charged with securities fraud after confessing to his sons that his business was a Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The returns paid to investors came from money invested by other people. And there was almost nothing left…

    Coltin, executive director of the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, said she spent the day at her office as a woman in mourning, taking condolence calls and trying to understand what happened.

    “I laid off five people today,” she said.

    “Our foundation was the lifeblood of this community,” she said.

    “It’s just very, very sad.”…

    Madoff’s investors included a number of prominent hedge funds and the firm of Fred Wilpon, the owner of the New York Mets. Several may have sustained billions of dollars in losses.

    But the damage appears to be deepest in the small world of Jewish philanthropy, where Madoff was a leading figure. The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System said it lost $5 million. The Julian J. Levitt Foundation, based in Texas and focused on Jewish causes, lost about $6 million. Yeshiva University, a New York institution where Madoff served on the board, said it was examining how much money it invested with his firm.

    Jack’s going to be pissed, but I’ll allow it…you got me. Interesting point creatively expressed.

    Comment by Brad — 12/13/2008 @ 7:54 pm

  4. I have no trouble getting through to the NYT piece, reads as follows:

    The news was equally devastating for the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation in Salem, Mass., which works to reverse the dilution of Jewish identity through intermarriage and assimilation by sending teenagers to Israel and supporting other Jewish education efforts.
    ————

    I suppose technically Jewish is ‘white’.

    Comment by Mortexai — 12/14/2008 @ 12:35 am

  5. More about ethnic clubs and elitists.

    Bernard Madoff is a member in good standing of the Palm Beach Country Club, <bthe exclusive Jewish club on the North End of the island.

    [Exlcusive clubs based on religious or ethnic identity? OK fine. But was he not the head of NASDAQ, a highly public institution?]

    Bernard and Ruth Madoff bought their home on North Lake Way in 1967, and are among the most long standing members of the club. The Palm Beach Country Club is the ultimate symbol of the Jewish ascendency. Unlike the WASP clubs, to join you have to have made major charitable contributions. [To Jewish causes, or to any cause? Can a WASP even make a contribution to a WASP cause with bringing on a reign of fire down upon him?]

    You also have to have made your fortune in clean ways. [I would love to see the membership list and put this claim to the test.]

    There are no garbage magnates, no slum lords. You have to be a person of character. And there was no one more revered and honored than Bernard Madoff. [Speaks for itself.]

    Will Bernake make any of these people whole, in the interest of ‘financial stability’? Probably not, as they did not work for Goldman Sachs, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.

    HuffPo

    Comment by daveg — 12/14/2008 @ 12:41 am

  6. Do you think they dismissed this guy as some crazy conspiracy theorist when he started complaining about Madoff some nine years ago.

    Harry Markopolos, who years ago worked for a rival firm, researched Mr. Madoff’s stock-options strategy and was convinced the results likely weren’t real.

    “Madoff Securities is the world’s largest Ponzi Scheme,” Mr. Markopolos, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1999.

    Mr. Markopolos pursued his accusations over the past nine years, dealing with both the New York and Boston bureaus of the SEC, according to documents he sent to the SEC reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

    From the Annoyingly Relentless Skeptic Dept.

    Comment by daveg — 12/14/2008 @ 9:53 am

  7. Brad 2.> And what point would that be?

    Comment by James — 12/15/2008 @ 1:23 pm

  8. Also, there is no way this could have been a one man operation.

    There is almost no doubt his son’s were in on the deal and the family has agreed to have them ‘turn in’ the 70 year old dad in order to escape prosecution.

    Or if not the sons them others, but most likely the sons.

    Consider this: Running a billion dollar Ponzi scheme has to be very time consuming. Running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme by yourself, at age 70?

    I don’t think it can be done.

    Just generating the phony transaction receipts is a full time job. How did this son-of-a-bitch do it all by himself? Madoff HAD TO HAVE HELP.

    Funny Smell.

    Comment by daveg — 12/15/2008 @ 2:30 pm

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