Bernie Madoff's Victims: The List

HSBC "has emerged as one the largest victims of Bernard Madoff’s alleged fraud with potential exposure of about $1bn to the investment manager’s collapsed venture...HSBC’s exposure stemmed from loans it provided to institutional clients, mainly hedge funds of funds, that wanted to invest with Mr Madoff. HSBC’s direct exposure is believed to be about $1bn in loans provided to clients who invested some $500m of their own funds in Mr Madoff’s venture. Under the typical terms of these deals, if the US authorities recover any funds from Mr Madoff, HSBC will be paid first, with its clients suffering the first tranche of losses." (FT:)

Man Group’s RMF division has about $350m invested in funds which outsourced their management to Madoff securities, although this is a tiny fraction of the division’s $25bn of assets. (FT)

Pioneer Investments, an arm of Italy’s UniCredit, had “substantially all” of $835m invested with Madoff. (FT)

Maxam Capital Management LLC. Combined loss of $280 million. "I'm wiped out," said Sandra Manzke, Maxam's founder and chairman. The Darien, Conn., fund of hedge funds will have to close as a result of the losses, she said. (WSJ)

Fairfield Greenwich Group. Bloomberg: The biggest loser may be Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff’s eponymous firm, three people familiar with the matter said... Fairfield Sentry has a record of more than 15 years with an annual return of 4 to 6 percentage points above benchmark interest rates, according to a marketing document dated this month that was prepared by Zurich-based NPB New Private Bank Ltd. On an absolute basis, returns exceeded 10 percent every year from 1991 through 2000. Since then, they ranged from 6.4 percent to 9.8 percent...The strategy is a “split-strike conversion,” where the investment manager buys shares of large U.S. companies and enters into options contracts to limit the risk, the document says.

Fix Asset Management. Bloomberg: Fix Asset Management, which had an account worth at least $400 million with Madoff Investments. The firm said it’s checking with lawyers about the holdings. “We are very shocked,” John Fix, the son of founder Charles Fix, said by phone from Greece. “We put in redemptions in the past few months and got our money back no problem. We are just so surprised about all this.”

Kingate Management Ltd. Bloomberg says $2.8 billion Kingate Global Fund Ltd. invested with Madoff.

Santander. WSJ: The eurozone's largest bank by market value, said its clients had an exposure of €2.33 billion ($3.1 billion) to Madoff's investment funds, mainly through its Optimal Strategic US Equity fund. More than €2 billion belongs to institutional investors and international clients of its private-banking business, which provides services to wealthy individuals, it said. The remaining €320 million belongs to private-banking customers in Spain, where Santander is based.

Thyssen Family. Source sends the following: Thybo Investments grew out of a family office for Thyssen. They have been in fund of funds it seems since 1989. Thybo International is a "proper" fund of fund but it's newer share class G invests only in one manager - and i'm 99% sure it's Madoff as the returns are almost the same. Some more info. The fund started in Jan 2007. Ernst & Young. Luxembourg are the auditors. UBS Luxembourg is the administrator. Thybo states on their webpage: "Our track record incorporates audited financial statements at both a composite firm-wide and individual portfolios level."

Ira Roth's family. WSJ: Ira Roth, a New Jersey resident, who says his family has about $1 million invested through Mr. Madoff's firm, is "in a state of panic." He said his 86-year-old mother-in-law has been living on the investments' returns, and he has been using the funds to pay college tuition.

Sterling Equities. Fund controlled by Fred Wilpon, co-owner of the NY Mets, confirms it had money with Madoff.

Stephen Abbott, a San Francisco lawyer. WSJ: [Abbott] and two siblings had several hundred thousand dollars invested with Mr. Madoff. They inherited the trust from their father, who had befriended Mr. Madoff years ago. Performance remained steady through the current bear market, he said. "People were floored," he says. "We were making money in this lousy market." He says he is concerned about recovering the money but "you have to get philosophical about this stuff. It could be worse; we still have our health."

Lawrence Velvel, "69, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, said he and a friend may have lost millions of dollars between them (AP). "This is a major disaster for a lot of people," Velvel said in a telephone interview from his Andover, Mass., office. "You work all your life, you finally manage to save up something, and somebody who's entrusted with it, it turns out suddenly he's a crook. Lots of people are getting fully or partially wiped out." Velvel said he wants to know where government regulators, as well as accountants and others at Madoff's company, were when the money was being lost." (AP)

J. Ezra Merkin. GMAC LLC Chairman. WSJ: Mr. Merkin, the chairman of former General Motors Corp. financing arm GMAC, is also a money manager at Ascot Partners LLC in New York. Ascot, which had $1.8 billion under management as of Sept. 30, had substantially all of its assets invested with Mr. Madoff, according to a letter to Mr. Merkin sent to clients Thursday night. Mr. Merkin said as one of the largest investors in Ascot, he believed he had personally "suffered major losses from this catastrophe."

Mort Zuckerman. Mr. Zuckerman, the chairman of real-estate firm Boston Properties and owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, had significant exposure through a fund that invested substantially all of its assets with Mr. Madoff (WSJ)

Richard Spring. WSJ: A Boca Raton resident and former securities analyst, says he had about $11 million -- or 95% of his net worth -- invested with Mr. Madoff. "That's how much I believed in him," Mr. Spring said.

Members of half-a-dozen country clubs: WSJ: "Mr. Madoff tapped social networks in Dallas, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis. In Minnesota, he attracted investors from Hillcrest Golf Club of St. Paul and Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, investors say. One of them estimated that investors from the two clubs may have invested more than $100 million combined. One of the largest clusters of Madoff investors was in Florida, where losses could be substantial. Mr. Madoff relied on a network of friends, family and business colleagues to attract investors. According to investors and agents, some of these agents were paid commissions for harvesting investors. Others had separate, lucrative business relationships with Mr. Madoff. "If you were eating lunch at the club or golfing, everyone was always talking about how Madoff was making them all this money," one investor says. "Everyone wanted to sign up." Jeff Fischer, a top divorce attorney in Palm Beach, says many of his clients were also Mr. Madoff's clients. "Every big divorce that came through my office had portfolio positions with Madoff," he says. Two of his investors said that among his clients, Mr. Madoff was considered a money-management legend; they would joke that if Mr. Madoff was a fraud, he'd take down half the world with him."

Nomura and Neue Privat Bank. "Marketed access to Fairfield Sentry Ltd., a fund overseen by Mr. Madoff and sold through Fairfield Greenwich. The shares offered by Neue Privat and Nomura were leveraged three times -- meaning $3 of borrowed money was added to every $1 of capital invested in order to magnify returns, greatly increasing the potential losses for those investors." (WSJ)

Unicredit. The Italian firm had unspecified amount with Madoff via its Dublin-based Pioneer alt-asset group. (MarketWatch)

Robert Lappin Foundation in Massachusetts closed its doors today and is citing relationship to Maddoff fund. $8MM foundation plus personal holdings. Foundation supported Jewish organizations throughout North Shore of Massachusetts. (source: Jewish Journal)

Wunderkinder Foundation, a Steven Spielberg charity. In the past the foundation "appears to have invested a significant portion of its assets with Mr. Madoff, based on regulatory filings. In 2006, the Madoff firm accounted for roughly 70% of the foundation's interest and dividend income, according to regulatory filings. A representative of Mr. Spielberg confirmed that the foundation has suffered losses on its investments with the Madoff firm. He said he didn't know the size of the losses and couldn't comment further, including on whether Mr. Spielberg had any of his own money invested with the Madoff firm." WSJ

BNP Paribas. "BNP Paribas's exposure, the extent of which is not clear, may stem from BNP's lending relationship with a fund of funds that was a big Madoff client, said people familiar with the matter. A BNP spokeswoman declined to comment." WSJ: BNP, France's largest bank by market value, said it could lose as much as 350 million euros as a result of the alleged fraud. The bank said it has no investment of its own in the hedge funds managed by Bernard Madoff Investment Services. BNP Paribas, however, said it is exposed to these funds through its trading business and lending to hedge funds that had invested in Madoff's funds.

Ira Rennert. Vicky Ward of Vanity Fair, said on CNBC."Heavily, heavily invested."

Swiss private bank Reichmuth & Co. "said its clients had an exposure of some 385 million Swiss francs to Madoff funds. The bank said Reichmuth Matterhorn, a fund that invests in other hedge funds, faced a potential loss of about 8.6% on its exposure to Madoff. That amount represented about 3.5% of the 11 billion Swiss Francs Reichmuth & Co. has under management, the bank said." (WSJ)

Union Bancaire Privee. UBP spokesman said the bank's clients have "limited" losses related to Madoff, but wouldn't be more specific or comment further. (WSJ)

EIM Group, the European investment manager with about $11 billion in assets, had a number of non-U.S. investors into funds overseen by Mr. Madoff, according to people familiar with the matter. Overall, EIM assets at risk are less than 2% of what it manages, which means losses could top $200 million. (WSJ).

UBS: ""Very limited" direct exposure to the Madoff funds...But the Zurich-based bank's wealth-management arm helped clients in Europe and possibly elsewhere invest with Mr. Madoff, according to investment professionals in Europe who spoke with some of these clients. UBS is currently reviewing its clients' exposure to Mr. Madoff's funds, according to the person familiar with the matter. The person said the funds weren't on UBS's list of "recommended" investments for its U.S. clients, but that they may have been among the firm's suggested investments for overseas clients." (WSJ)

Avram and Carol Goldberg, former owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket chain (Reader)

Carl and Ruth Shapiro, donors to Brandeis University, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The Boston Globe reported on Saturday that the Shapiro family foundation lost almost half its money, or about $145 million.

Fairfield County, Connecticut. Bloomberg: First Selectman Ken Flatto and other elected officials in Fairfield, Connecticut, thought the 58,000- person town’s pension fund was holding up well amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The 18 percent decline in total assets since the end of June looked smart compared with the 31 percent plunge in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, and total assets of $286 million left a cushion over the $270 million of estimated liabilities. Flatto’s mood darkened yesterday when he heard Bernard Madoff, a Wall Street executive who oversaw $42 million of the assets, had been arrested and charged with fraud. “We classified this on our portfolio as one of the more conservative investments,” Flatto said in an interview. “You rely on your experts and your managers to be honest.”

A representative of Mr. Spielberg confirmed that the foundation has suffered losses on its investments with the Madoff firm. He said he didn't know the size of the losses and couldn't comment further, including on whether Mr. Spielberg had any of his own money invested with the Madoff firm." WSJ

Note to Spielberg and other Hollywood limo liberals : In the average Hollywood movie Mr. Madoff would be a dramatic hero. The cops and bean counters going after him would be seen as "not cool".

Spielberg - is there any chance that you've reaped what you've sown?

My guess is, "yes".

Sadly, so have the rest of us - with the creeps of the world emboldened by Hollywood's love of the underbelly criminal examples.

Hildy, these people have been glorifying criminals for so long it makes me sick - the fact they got ripped off by one is justice. Their movies have encouraged the creeps of the world to prey on the rest of us - and I guess these Hollywood BIGS felt their money and expensive security systems would safeguard them from the consequences of the filth they pumped into he world. I am thrilled that they were NOT immune.

Did you see the charities that will no longer be helping the needy?

Many of the so called "charities" are money making organizations. I have no problem with charities, I have a problem with charities that raise funds yet a large proportion of their "fundraising" goes to pay for the fundraisers or administrators. Many of the largest charities in the US have CEO's with huge salaries, and pay their fundraisers large percentages. Even if you are a non-profit, you can still pay your top-dogs large salaries. The Red Cross is one such organization. Don't get me wrong, they do some good work - but they are not a bunch of volunteers doing this because it makes them feel all warm and bubbly inside. The people that work for the Red Cross - WORK for the Red Cross, they get paid. Red Cross' Top Person: Marsha Evans Top Salary:* $651,957 (FY ending 06/30/03)

I recomend to anyone, before you donate, go to a charity's website and investigate their finacials. See where the money you donate really goes. A tiny percentage should go to admin. Lots of charities pay from 20 up to 50% of the donation to their fundraisers. So you donate $100, fifty bucks is going in the fundraisers pocket! Charities "investing" or shall I say "gambling" with money that I gave to be ditributed to those in need I find problematic!

That's a pretty bold and trite comment without any supporting facts.

The bottom line is most people trust in their financial advisors and folks like Madoff to take care of their money and portfolio. His reputation and background was strong but he ended up being a thief.

How that gets transferred to "greed" and "everything they deserve" especially without facts is a STRONG indication of class envy.

For the life of me, I will not understand why someone gets jealous of another's money. You should APPLAUD it success and the wealth that results from it. Go make your own.

But that’s always been the system...money is supposed to make money..that’s how capitalism works, even with charities...and until recently, it’s worked pretty well.

Aaaah - there is the problem! We are mixing charity with capitalism.

Charity is giving - capitalism is making money. The two should never be be mixed. You are taking a non-profit and turning it around by abusing the loopholes and making it a for-profit, yet still holding on to your tax exempt status. Eventually one will get caught and it seems these charities got caught by their own device - greed! Rather than wait for donations, or be happy with what they had coming in, they invested to have more. Greed will get you every time!

“And on a final note - they are not “VICTIMS” - they were investors who made BAD CHOICES. When you invest, you take a RISK”

Your a right to a degree. However, the worrying piece in all this is that these were not investments in companies in Russia or Latvia or Nigeria where you might expect to fall victim of a Ponzi scheme. This happened in the United States of America - which holds itself as a bastian of a fairly (rather than ‘overly’) regulated market. The accounting standards, the checks and balances, the laws in place, are supposed to mean that things like this don’t happen and when they do they are detected early. This went on for years! There will be all kinds of fund managers all over the world suddenly looking at the risk profiles of seemingly safe US investments and wondering if those risk assessments are sound, or how many other of these big funds are built on a lie. Money will be pulled, the selling will add to the panic, the downwards spiral will continue, it will be longer before investors like myself feel comfortable putting money back into America. (hey, you wont miss me at the moment the pound has collapsed anyway - but you will other international investors). This guy has not just hurt the invidual and institutional investors he served, he has hurt the integrity of the US markets, and with that he has hurt the United States.

I hope he is locked up till he draws his last breath.

I know what you’re saying, I just don’t wish this kind of thing on anyone.

Well, generally I don't either. But in this situation I'd like to see if Hollywood will made a movie glorifying Bernie Madoff. They've glorified every criminal known to man - well the ones who have preyed on the rest of us, at least. Let's see if they do the same for one who preyed on them. I doubt it.

I do feel sorry for the good people who were ripped off by this guy - and there were many. But not the Hollywood creeps. I'm just sorry he didn't take them for more.

Yeah, mine appears to have been deleated too by these brains. I offered two articles already posted on FR in the last couple of days, one being from the WSJ.

I’m still scratching my head.

I really need to drop FR.

Why was not post #38 pulled...by Hidy that said:

“Where is your evidence that they knew he was doing something wrong? If you don’t have it..SHUT THE HELL UP.”

After her comment, I entered the fray, and I showed evidence. Compared to this, mine were truthful and my remarks tame.

Is telling the truth and showing proof with research material bad now?

Do I really want to know the answer?

Probably not. I’m about to walk away.

Bill Gates was already ripped off by Warren Buffet big, big time. Buffet created a class B stock in Berkshire Hathaway, donated it to Gates Foundation for partnership interest(control as it is not legally a partnership), after Buffet had stripped away the voting power of the class B stock to 1/200th of a share of the class A stock he retained ownership of. It’s like donating your checking account but retaining all signature authority over disbursements! Talk about the ultimate corporate freeze technique for estate planning purposes!

I couldn’t figure out why Gates did it until I started checking the background history of his legal counsel.

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