MADOFF 'FAMILY PLOT' (no deal--family, accomplices face indictment)

NY POST ^ | 3/11/09 | BRUCE GOLDING, REUVEN FENTON and DAN MANGAN

[Liz]

* FEDS PROBE WIFE AS SCAM HITS $65B; * 'MANY OTHER KIN TO BE INDICTED' ........new information suggests Madoff's "inner circle transferred assets to their wives......then laundered through an English bank." Bernard employed his wife, two sons, brother, and niece. Ruth Madoff is believed to have received at least $70M......Bernard has allegedly been hampering probers' efforts. "He's jerking everyone around," the source told The Beast web site ... "Every day he changes his tune...".....probers are looking at some 20 people including "feeder funds" that invested with him, and British lawyers and accountants who may have helped transfer funds to an "entity" whose board included Madoff's wife, Ruth......Madoff promised some clients an eye-popping 46% annual return.......he allegedly had workers "communicate with clients and generate false and fraudulent documents, including account statements and trade confirmations".....and shuttled $250M from NY to London offices, then back to NY "to give the appearance that he was conducting securities transactions in Europe"........"The whole world wants to see him in the same dungeon as the Count of Monte Cristo," a former Manhattan federal prosecutor said.

[Liz]

....probers are looking at some 20 people-- including hedge fund operators who ran "feeder funds" that invested clients' money with Madoff........

Bernie's pal J Ezra Merkin, a feeder who ran four hedge funds and owned an offshore bank (while heading GMAC). Merkin's father, Hermann, a fur-trader who became director of the Israel Discount Bank of New York--the bank the US govt leaned on after finding evidence of money laundering.

Bernanke, Paulson, Merkin---salivating to divvy up the taxpayers' billions. Americans have not yet learned the full extent of official corruption, thievery, schemes and scams involving $BILLIONS of tax dollars aided and abetted by the dupes on Capitol Hill.

MERKIN'S CAYMAN ISLAND HEDGE FUND As GMAC chair, Merkin ran hedge funds as a sideline and was feeding funds into Madoff's operation (and pocketing hundreds of $millions in fees)-----Merkin's name is connected to (1) Ariel Fund, based in the Cayman Islands (a partnership between Merkin and Fortis Bank in an infamous money laundering haven), (2) Ascot Partners, (3) general partner of Gabriel Capital LP, a $5 billion family of hedge funds, and, (4) managing partner of Gotham Capital.

GMAC chair J Ezra Merkin and Stephen A. Feinberg, bought Bank Leumi from the Israeli government for $500 million. Stephen A. Fineberg's private equity firm---Cerberus Capital Management LP--- also owns Chrysler Motors. The US Treasury is now buying a $5 billion stake in GMAC and lending $1 billion to GM. This latest loan is IN ADDITION to the $13.4 billion the US Treasury lent earlier to J Ezra Merkin's GM, and Fineberg's Chrysler

Same with Madoff's buddy Ira Rennert---the owner of an obscenely palatial Hampton residence. Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, and Chairman of Yeshiva University Investment Committee, "invested" some $200 million w/ Madoff.

This has tax evasion written all over it. Hamptonites complain this astoundingly palatial mega-mansion in the posh Hamptons is actually a "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox Judaism students. The complex---which rivals Versailles and Buckingham Palace----was built by Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair Ira Rennert. The average "hate-filled anti-Semite" might ask: How can Orthodox religionists be designated "disadvantaged minorities" when they are investing hundreds of millions of dollars w/ Madoff?

BGRND Orthodox Judaism was designated a "disadvantaged minority" under Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society." This meant that Orthodox became beneficiaries of millions upon millions of tax dollars----federal community development funds. Federal and city assistance received over the years include CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) monies, Section 8 housing assistance, school meal funds, Headstart, HUD grants, and low interest loans. In 1984, federal aid was expanded when the federal government included Orthodox in a priority group of six disadvantaged minorities recognized by all federal agencies.

Madoff needed "friends in high places" to pull this off. I would bet you dollars to donuts these connivers were stealing Federal Reserve insider info. Knowing Federal Reserves moves in advance---even fractions of % points---- would make zillions for these cunning thieves...........on top of the billions they were swilling elsewhere. Madoff had ties to insiders. These toxic termites were running rampant allover the US government.

CASE IN POINT GMAC head J. Ezra Merkin (now resigned) was using several hedge funds to feed Madoff. Merkin was Best Buddies with Chrysler head and Cerebrus hedger Stephen Fineberg......the two were in business together. NOTE WELL GMAC and Chrysler both got billion dollar federal bailouts.

Both Fineberg and Merkin ran hedge funds that fed Madoff.......and the two co-owned an offshore bank that could easily be used to stash stolen loot out of sight of the IRS and US banking laws.

Ex-Treasury Sect John Snow headed Fineberg's Cerebrus hedge fund.

THE RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND BUSINESS LABYRINTH MADOFF USED TO RAKE IN BILLIONS.

MAP IS INTERACTIVE AT WEB SITE

WEB SITE http://news.muckety.com/2008/12/28/madoff-used-social-family-networks-to-rake-in-billions/9031

ANOTHER MADOFF FEEDER FUND Brighton Co Investments is headed by Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills "philanthropist" who served on "charitable" boards with Madoff. Chais (pronounced Chase) told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles that he personally invested with Madoff but also "facilitated" others who wished to do likewise. However, spokesmen for the SEC and the California Dept of Corporations said they could find no record of Chais registering as an investment advisor or a broker.

Stanley Chais offers remarks at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

[Wolfie]

Line ‘em up against a wall.

[Rennes Templar]

This gets more incredible and maddening. Is there anything pointing to ties to involvement by any of our elected officials?

[calcowgirl]

Same with Madoff's buddy Ira Rennert---the owner of an obscenely palatial Hampton residence. Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, and Chairman of Yeshiva University Investment Committee, "invested" some $200 million w/ Madoff.

That's Arnie's buddy, who after filing chapter 11 for several of his companies and abandoning other land filled with toxic waste, joined with Schwarzie in bringing the Hummer to the commercial market. Doncha love these "billionaire" "capitalists" who leave their investors holding the bag?

Ira Rennert's House of Debt
How leverage made millions for a tarnished financier--and investors lost out

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

“Bernard has allegedly been hampering probers’ efforts. “He's jerking everyone around,” the source told The Beast web site ... “Every day he changes his tune...”....”

Uh, how about a dank cell with a demented cellmate who has a thing for guys like Bernie?

Amazing what we've become, that someone accused of such a destruction of other lives has the arrogance to play games.

[wombtotomb]

Tot mom
Octo mom

Nothing surprises me anymore about peoples disregard for fellow human beings, including Madoffs, Congress, et al..

[mewzilla]

""The whole world wants to see him in the same dungeon as the Count of Monte Cristo," a former Manhattan federal prosecutor said.

Except for some folks in the SEC and on Capitol Hill....

[Ann Archy]

If Bernie is the ONLY one that goes to prison for this scam, then I will KNOW that the Justice System is NOT BLIND.....

[tc45a]

Uh, how about a dank cell with a demented cellmate who has a thing for guys like Bernie?

Last night on Fox they said it may be months before he is sentanced..all along he stays in his posh apartment paid by armed guards paid from his own money stolen from his victims.

[onedoug]

This character isn’t even in jail.

[Wolfie]

I bet he offs himself before he serves a day.

[eureka!]

"This gets more incredible and maddening. Is there anything pointing to ties to involvement by any of our elected officials?"

Weeks and weeks ago I read that Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) was an investor but not a blip after that. Madoff was a big 'rat contributor too, with family at the SEC's enforcement division and obviously connected to many, many rich people who too are contributor$ to politician$. If ever known, the truth will take years to out with the presstitutes covering instead "Madonna at 60" or somesuch, unless a good GOP scandal comes along...

[Liz]

Thanks for the link---odd how throwing out Rennert’s name, lots of nasty stuff surfaces (/snic).

BUSINESS WEEK EXCERPT CIRCA 2003 Rennert's tale is instructive at a time when a growing legion of discredited star analysts and bankers, who symbolize the excesses of the '90s, are being banned from the industry or are under investigation. As Rennert's career shows, people who are penalized by the securities industry can easily--and legally--slip into other financial services and continue to take funds from investors.

Rennert refashioned himself as a consultant for the next 11 years, according to 2001 Who's Who in America. But it's not clear what type of consulting he did.

In 1975, he emerged as a financier, arranging small leveraged buyouts and amassing an eclectic collection of unwanted companies that made everything from pet cages to butcher blocks.

In the late 1980s, Rennert became one of Wall Street's favored buyers of companies that no one else wanted. His first big deal was in 1988, when Renco bought a Warren (Ohio) steel company from its parent, LTV Steel Co., which was in bankruptcy, for $140 million. He renamed it WCI Steel Inc. and turned it around with the help of $250 million in junk bonds.

(Circa 2003)......with the military buildup in the Mideast boosting demand for his Humvees and with the H2 selling well, it was a good time to sell. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is pitching Rennert's company---AM General in partnership with Arnold Schwarzenegger----to private investment funds, including the Carlyle Group and Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners.

General Motors Corp. has an option to buy 40% at the market price.

Rennert has done very well for himself.

(1) He owns a plush duplex apartment furnished with antiques and Impressionist paintings on Manhattan's Park Avenue near his Rockefeller Center headquarters.

(2) He has a palatial home in Israel.......and a Gulfstream 5 jet.

(3) And a mansion on 64.8 acres in tony Southampton, NY, built for an estimated $100 million (PICS below). The 100,000-square-foot complex angered neighbors and inspired James Brady's novel, The House that Ate the Hamptons.

====================================================

Madoff's buddy Ira Rennert---is the owner of this obscenely palatial Hampton residence. Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, and Chairman of Yeshiva University Investment Committee, "invested" some $200 million w/ Madoff.

This has tax evasion written all over it. Hamptonites complain this astoundingly palatial mega-mansion in the posh Hamptons is actually a "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox Judaism students. The complex---which rivals Versailles and Buckingham Palace----was built by Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair Ira Rennert. The average "hate-filled anti-Semite" might ask: How can Orthodox religionists be designated "disadvantaged minorities" when they are investing hundreds of millions of dollars w/ Madoff?

BGRND Orthodox Judaism was designated a "disadvantaged minority" under Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society." This meant that Orthodox became beneficiaries of millions upon millions of tax dollars----federal community development funds. Federal and city assistance received over the years include CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) monies, Section 8 housing assistance, school meal funds, Headstart, HUD grants, and low interest loans. In 1984, federal aid was expanded when the federal government included Orthodox in a priority group of six disadvantaged minorities recognized by all federal agencies.

[Condor51]

Good News -- Federal Judge Denny Chin talks tough about cutting Bernie Madoff any slack.
Bad News -- Chin was appointed by Billy Jeff in 1994.

Soooo, I'd bet Billy Jeff has been on the phone with Chin 'asking' him to go easy on the Jewish DEMOCRAT donor, Bernie Madoff. As giving Bernie the max, or even 10 years, will tick off the NY Jewish Community and hurt any future political ambitions of Hillary.

And similar calls and letters for leniency are 'prolly' going to Chin from Abe Foxman and his ADL, as being tough on 'Pillar of the Community' Bernie would be pure antisemitism. This goes for the others in his family if 'targeted' by the antisemitic Federal prosecutors.

So I wouldn't be surprised if old Bernie gets nothing but a 'stiff fine' (ha-ha-ha), community service and PROBATION due to his age and 'status in the community'.

[Liz]

Hmmmmm........what you say would be a nice try.

But Bernie screwed so many of his brethren-—who are demanding all-out revenge and Bernie’s head in a noose.

I rather think the latter is more probable.

[dfwgator]

I bet he offs himself before he serves a day.

Or somebody will off him before he starts singing like a canary.

[Condor51]

The reason I came up with the 'Fine, Community Serv & probation is something that just happenned here in Chi...

A powerful, 'connected', 'ex' politician, and fixer (Fast Eddie V) was in Federal Court for corruption and the Feds had the goods on him on a dozen counts. He plead guilty like Bernie will and was looking at 20 years in the slammer.

But NOPE, despite the sentence prosecutors wanted, despite the evidence and GUILTY PLEA, despite Federal sentencing guidelines, despite the people he scammed, and despite that EVERYONE thought he was off to jail -- he got off with a slap on the wrist. Fast Eddie got a fine, some community service ... and probation.

To say everyone was shocked is putting it mildly. The only one not shocked was fast Eddie himself. He walked out of the court building with a smirk on his face like he knew his sentence before hand.

The thing is, when Fast Eddie was a 'player' in Chi politics. HE picked judges and at parties, Judges waited on him like servants. These were local and Federal judges.

So I was thinking of hat, the connected getting off. And Bernie surely was connected. And, IF Madoff was looking at hard time, the Judge would have pulled his Bail long ago and he'd be in a holding cell instead of his Penthouse.

That's why - in spite of everything - I think Bernie will effectively walk.
I hope I'm wrong and he rots in jail but Bernie is connected to all the right people. Plus he's a 'protected minority'.

[Liz]

Chicago justice-—the crook walks——so what else is new?

I guess I was convinced by no less a luminary than high-powered lawyer, Barry Slotnick.....who told reporters, “I can tell you that Madoff is going to jail for a long long time.”

[BunnySlippers]

I’m trying to find where the photos and graphs are from. I didn’t see them at the NY Post. Am I missing them?

[Liz]

Comments w/ photos/graphs shown are sourced from older stories. Such as INTERACTIVE MAP http://news.muckety.com/2008/12/28/madoff-used-social-family-networks-to-rake-in-billions/9031

You can also click on properties to see the source of any pic or graphic.