Guardian UK: 95-year-old philanthropist loses $550m in Madoff fraud

[marmar]

95-year-old philanthropist loses $550m in Madoff fraud

Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 December 2008 19.35 GMT


A 95-year-old Boston clothing tycoon, Carl Shapiro, looks set to be the biggest single victim of Bernard Madoff's fund management scam by losing up to $545m (£357m) at the hands of the Wall Street fraudster.

A respected philanthropist, Shapiro entrusted much of his wealth to Madoff and had $400m of his own money in the disgraced financier's firm, plus $145m from his family's charitable foundation.

With court-appointed liquidators winding up Madoff's business, investors' money appears unlikely to be recovered. A long-standing Wall Street fixture, Madoff stunned the financial community last week by confessing that his fund had lost $50bn and was built on "one big lie". Charged with fraud, he has been bailed on a bond of $10m.

An eclectic list of victims is forming. Hampshire county council revealed today that it had £7.1m tied up in Madoff's firm, although it stressed that this was a only a slice of its £2.4bn pension fund. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/bernard-madoff-usa

[MadBadger]

1. Can he get a life sentence for this?

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Probably will get a pResidential pardon instead.

x(

[TomInTib]

5. Not even close.

Hell, the maximum fine is $15mil.

Forget restitution.

[madeline_con]

3. If a 95 year old philanthropist killed madoff, would he be acquited?

I'm just askin'.

[Submariner]

4. How did he get $10 mil bail if he has lost everybody's money and is in debt to them?

That $10 mil can't be his anymore. He should be locked up on Rikers Island with all the other thieves. Let him taste his medicine. I suppose he is in his apartment on the internet transferring funds now.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. Probably so..

I suppose he is in his apartment on the internet transferring funds now.

[TomInTib]

7. I read that he is down to his last $200-300million.

They cannot freeze his assetts without some sort of judgement.

Just watch, he'll get maybe 5 years and a maximum $15million fine (that is the maximum on the fine).

[depakid]

8. "The media billionaire Mort Zuckerman has lost money."

Wonder how Mort's opinions on "the new economy" and deregulation have changed because of this....

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. He's under house arrest in his $7.5 mil NYC apartment.

I'll bet he's really suffering.

[Frustratedlady]

10. But only from 9pm to 7am or vice versa.

He even got to pick his own guards.

Where did all these one-sided legal procedures come from?

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. They come from having

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, I would suspect..............

[FarCenter]

11. Being prejudiced towards someone is just as unreasonable as being prejudiced against someone

Be it on the basis of race, religion, language, nationality, or social status.