Investors Who Cashed Out Madoff Funds Before The Fall Are Guilty of Being Rich

PBS ^ | 12/17/2010 | Hari Sreenivasan

[ExxonPatrolUs]

If you're rich, you're guilty of profit. Hand it over!

[nikos1121]

Not sure if I understand...

The guy cashes out....

Dies....

7 billion of his estate going to Madoff victims?

Why not his heirs?

Help me on this...

[Tempest]

Making money off of others misfortune is the dream of capitalism.

[Tempest]

Totally. His own widow is the one who willingly volunteered to surrender the funds as well. Can you believe that!!! The audacity of her!!!

The guys finally wishes were that the bulk of his fortune go to charity in order to help the less fortunate. I can't imagine a more unamerican endeavor.

This entire action reeks of of commie socialist communism...

[Gene Eric]

>> Making money off of others misfortune is the dream of capitalism.

Pathetic, ignorant BS.

[9YearLurker]

That’s because this is a poorly done PBS report. This guy goes way back with Madoff and apparently was paid so much more, at such a higher rate, than anyone else that the suspicion is that he was in on the scheme—though he died last year and charges haven’t been filed against him. It was actually a couple of billion that the estate filed to recover from him, but his widow decided to cough up the whole profit.

[Liz]

Jeffry Picower took out profits totalling $7.2B----making the Florida "philanthropist" the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's $65B Ponzi scheme. As a savvy businessman and investor, Picower should have known 950% was an outlandish return.....when the stock market was returning 9%.

A lawyer representing 100 Madoff victims suggests it was no accident that Picower was one of the few Madoff customers who profited from the scheme. CBS' 60 Minutes reported that in Madoff's detailed notes, he revealed Jeffrey Picower---a major Planned Parenthood backer---was receiving a 950% return, indicating Picower was in on the scheme and profitied at the expense of others.

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

REFERENCE The trustee ID'ing Madoff's assets unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated intl funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth with assets and businesses in 11 places overseas. No question, tax evasion and money laundering was the name of the game for wealthy investors funneling income to Madoff. Wealthy businessmen posing as "philanthropists" hid hundreds of millions in annual income.

Some investors were suckered in to make the scheme look legit. The suckers helped payoff wealthy investors like Picower who made deals with Bernie. Wealthy deal makers like Picower got back more than they put in.

REFERENCE Madoff ran several scams simultaneously:
(1) a Ponzi fraud that made him and his family wealthy;
(2) laundering tax-free money for phony "charities,"
(3) IRS fraud facilitation for the wealthy;
(4) a protection racket (shielding investors from L/E);
(5) laundering tax-free money destined for big buck campaign contributions (campaign fraud).

Here's another "lucky" Madoff investor. Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, and Chairman of Yeshiva University Investment Committee, invested some $200 million w/ Madoff.

Rennert's Hamptons Mega Mansion, Sagaponack, NY. The complex rivals Versailles and Buckingham Palace. Rennert says he is Founder of Renco Group. This obscenely gargantuan mansion, dubbed Fairfield, is reportedly the largest occupied residential compound in America Square Feet: 66,000 / 110,000 (including outbuildings). It is situated on 63 prime acres and houses 29 bedrooms and 39 bathrooms. It also has a dining room that stretches 90 feet long, a bowling alley, two tennis courts, a squash court, a 164 seat movie theater, and a 200 car garage. This home also contains a rather rare item; its own power plant. Fairfield is currently valued at more than $185 illion. Hamptonites complain this astoundingly palatial mega-mansion in the posh Hamptons is actually a "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox Judaism students.

[Liz]

THE RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND BUSINESS LABYRINTH
(4800 INVESTORS) MADOFF USED TO RAKE IN BILLIONS.

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

[Tempest]

Hey if they're too stupid to not realize that they're being cheated it's too bad for them obviously the person lying to them is the superior individual because he has the intelligence to deceive them.

Deception = high intelligence.

[SpaceBar]

Help me on this...

Ponzi schemes are illegal. Any proceeds or profits obtained from one are considered ill-gotten gains just as receiving stolen property is. Ignorance of the originating crime doesn't absolve those downstream, same as property crimes.

[wiggen]

Whenever this topic,or one like it appears on any forum there is a division down the lines of it’s class warfare versus it’s thievery. Its not easy. How do we distinguish between the one person that took their money out,unknowing of the crime as opposed to someone that left theirs in which would seem to be obviously unwittingly? How do we determine that someone knew of the crime and benefited? I have to say that however it is handled,it must be handled in an equal manner. Fraud was committed and much money spent and not recoverable. No matter the eventual resolution for the investors nobody will be entirely happy.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Making money off of others['] misfortune is the dream of capitalism.

You're wrong. Exactly how did Henry Ford or Thomas Edison or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or Richard Branson dream of making money off others' misfortune? Can you cite even one instance?

[Ghotier]

Piwowar was a major funder of Planned Parenthood and thus, with and through his funding, he was responsible for the extermination of endless unborn children. And the fact that his fortune is being seized to repay those from whom the money is stolen is divine justice at its finest.

[Maine Mariner]

That is how I see it too.

[Alberta's Child]

There was an interesting Federal court case a while back involving a charity that had received a large donation from the estate of someone who (it was later learned) had stolen the money in some kind of white-collar criminal enterprise. I seem to remember that the basis of the court case was the question about whether the IRS and/or proscutors could legally force the charity to give the money back years later. I think the court came down on the side of the IRS/prosecutor in that case, for the reasons you mentioned here.

[GOPJ]

Maybe they were tipped off - in which case they’re part of the crime.

[GOPJ]

Madoff might have tipped off his friends - told them to get out before the feds moved in... In that case they would be part of the crime.

[GOPJ]

If you’re not being sarcastic, you might be at the wrong web site. That kind of thinking is owned by the looney left...

[Dutch Boy]

It’s easy....

Items 2 and 3 from Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.

I am starting to piece together that almost everything the left does is right out of Marx’s book.

[Bobalu]

The federal and state taxes paid by those who made money on the Madoff scheme should be returned to the victims.

Why should the government prosper from this!?

Waiting to hear the gov offer the victims the money....(crickets chirping)