Palm Beach police: Jeffry Picower has died [friend of Maoff]

AP ^ | 10-25-09 | AP

[reagan_fanatic]

You know it’s funny - these low lifes spend most of their lives inventing ways of screwing the little guy out of his hard-earned money and in doing so accumulate vast fortunes and influence. Yet, in the end, none of that matters. Picower took not one red cent with him when he went.

He left with what he was born with - nothing. Justice is sometimes poetic.

[GOPJ]

The tax exempts might have facilitated IRS fraud by integrating:

1. Secret control over tax exempt fund-raising committees.

2. Requiring only one signature on tax-exempt bank checks.

3. Utilizing pre-signed tax-exempt bank checks.

4. Using secret bank accounts to keep secret the actual financial position of tax-exempt “charities.”

5. Assigning bank deposit and account reconciliation functions of tax-exempts to one person.

6. Conspiring to hide oversight of expenses and supporting vouchers from public view.

7. Having no outside auditor to review tax-exempt statements.

8. Cashing unusually large amounts of tax-exempt checks.

9. Having no official deposit and withdrawal control system.

10. Arranging kickbacks to other “charities” in exchange for donations.

---

EVERY liberal nonprofit needs to be looked at - most are scams.

[Landru]

"Picower is accused by the Madoff bankruptcy trustee of extracting $5.1B from Madoff’s enterprises in two decades.......making a 950% profit. A lawyer representing 100 Madoff victims suggests it was no accident that Picower was one of the few Madoff customers who made a substantial profit..."

So Picower, Madoff's best pal, large (if not largest) benefactor of Bernie's scam(s) & literally a billionaire is found dead. Who knew.

Listen Liz, question.
IF one wanted to learn if Picower belonged to or a member of say organizations such as Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission etc?
Where might one learn such information, one way or the other? I'm thinking a clever young fox like you would know the answer to that. :^)
TIA, my friend.

When I read of this early in the AM?
My first impression: "Funny that. Obviously despondent to the point of suicide." /sarc ;^)

[Liz]

MADOFF'S MADE MEN HIT BY SEC; 3 FROM FEEDER FIRM COHMAD CHARGED IN DECEPTION
NY POST, 6/23/09, By KAJA WHITEHOUSE

Four individuals who were key to Madoff's Ponzi scam were sued by the SEC for recruiting unwitting victims to participate in Madoff's $65 billion ruse. The SEC accused three top executives at Madoff feeder firm “Cohmad Securities” with running the firm as the fraud's "façade," and of "knowingly or recklessly" contributing to the scam in exchange for more than $100 million in fees over the course of two decades.

Irving Picard, the trustee for the liquidation of Madoff's operations, followed the SEC's suit with one of his own, asking the US bankruptcy court to force these people to give the $100 million to investors.

Charged in the SEC suit were Cohmad Chairman Maurice "Sonny" Cohn, 78, his daughter Marcia Cohn, 49, who served as Cohmad's COO, and Robert Jaffe, 65, a Cohmad VP who's been widely credited with corralling elite Palm Beach, Fla's wealthy set into the Madoff scam. (Madoff co-founded the firm with Cohn in 1985, thus explaining the "Coh" and "Mad" in the company's name).

Jaffe has become notorious for having directed an estimated $1 billion worth of investor money into Madoff's sham investment firm and is known in some circles as "the recruiter," has been accused of trading on his marriage to Ellen Shapiro, the daughter of well-known philanthropist and garmento Carl Shapiro, to lure clients from the clubby world of Palm Beach, particularly members of the exclusive Palm Beach Country Club.

At the center of the SEC's allegations is a claim that Cohmad was merely a front for funneling money into Madoff.

The SEC also accused the defendants of acting as shills who purported to be doing investors a favor by providing access to Madoff's supposedly "exclusive club" of clients.

However, it turns out that ensnaring people into the Madoff scheme was Cohmad's main business, and that the company drew most of its earnings from Madoff, who often paid the defendants directly, bypassing Cohmad entirely, the SEC said.

In a separate case, the SEC sued Beverly Hills-based “investment adviser” Stanley Chais, accusing him of lying to investors that he was the one managing their money when in fact it was Madoff.

SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/seven/06232009/business/madoffs_made_men_175645.htm

UPDATE The SEC claims that Chais and his family between 1995-2008 withdrew from Madoff's firm about $500M more than they had invested.

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 not only personally invested with Madoff, but he 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.

[Liz]

Madoff's working class victims view all of this w/ a mix of disgust and disinterest. Some are losing their homes.

Some victims have pushed for legislation that would change the rules and allow the SIPC make payments to people whose money was lost through so-called "feeder funds." Their proposals haven't picked up momentum, though, in part because of a public perception that most Madoff victims were, and remain, quite wealthy.

Letters and e-mails from less wealthy victims have poured into the courthouse. Seems like Madoff “allowed” a few working class people into his “exclusive” investment scheme. These people were used as a funding source to insure the filthy rich Palm Beach crowd could keep on sucking out profits..........like Picower’s 950% takeout.

A retired elementary school teacher in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., wonders what to do next. She rolled $225,000 from her retirement plan into a fund run by a well-regarded member of her church, who in turn invested it with Madoff. Now, it's all gone. If she had known Madoff personally and invested with him directly, she might be able to get every dime of her investment back through SIPC. Instead, she may get almost nothing. For now, she said, the only solution is for her husband to put off retirement and keep working, even after recent sextuple bypass surgery. "We really did need that money very much," she said. "I am in constant anguish."

A single mother wrote about trying to save money by turning down the heat in the house and keeping the lights off. Victim after victim said they were being forced to sell their homes. A Connecticut doctor said his practice's entire retirement plan had been wiped out, leaving 140 employees in the lurch.

"People like us, we are invisible," said a farmer near Boulder, Colo. who lost her savings in the scandal. "We feel we are all victims of the same crime, and we should be entitled to the same relief (as Madoff's wealthy victims)."

[CutePuppy]

As much as I empathize with people who are legitimate victims (not "dial-a-return" or tax evading / money laundering crooks) of Madoff or similar schemers, I have to say that if they didn't put their money into a self-directed account, directly into an institution which is SIPC or FDIC member, but instead are chasing returns by "investing" through "managers" they have little recourse but recovery lawsuit against manager.

Having SIPC reimburse third-party, not SIPC-insured, fraud losses is somewhat akin to having a property insurance company cover the cash that was stashed under the mattress which was burned in the house fire.

Actor Nicolas Cage Sues Ex-Manager, Claiming "Ruin" - BL, 2009 October 17, by Andrew M. Harris

Nicolas Cage, the Academy Award- winning film actor seen in “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Moonstruck” and “National Treasure,” sued his former business manager, claiming financial ruin.

Manager Samuel Levin’s alleged failure to pay the actor’s taxes, combined with poor investment decisions, sent Cage “down a path toward financial ruin,” according to a complaint filed in a California state court in Los Angeles yesterday. Claiming professional negligence and breach of contract, the actor is seeking $20 million in damages.

“Levin placed Cage in numerous highly speculative and risky ventures, resulting in Cage suffering catastrophic losses,” the actor’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.

The actor has been “forced to dispose of significant assets,” to pay off his liabilities, according to the complaint. The Daily Mail, a U.K. newspaper, on Oct. 15 reported Cage was selling a castle he owns there to pay back taxes. ..... Cage hired Levin and his firm, Levin & Co. Management Inc., in 2001 and fired them earlier this year, according to the complaint. .....