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List of Madoff's Victims Keep Growing, Likely to Extend Beyond Clients

Posted Dec 15, 2008 01:37pm EST by Aaron Task in Investing, Newsmakers

The victims of the Bernie Madoff scandal continue to mount and include some of the world's biggest financial institutions, major fund of funds managers, well-heeled individuals and many charities.

Henry Blodget has compiled an exhaustive list here, but some of the biggest names include: movie mogul Steven Spielberg, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and real-estate magnate Mort Zuckerman.

Among the institutions, Madoff's investors included Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group, whose $7.3 billion Fairfield Sentry Ltd. invested with Madoff, HSBC, Banco Santander, Nomura, UBS, fund of fund shop Tremont Capital and many more.

Many of Madoff's victims lived in Palm Beach, Fla. which is already reporting multi-million dollar real estate listings related to the scandal, and bracing for more. Madoff also "tapped social networks in Dallas, Chicago, Boston and Minneapolis," the WSJ reports.

Some witnessing the suffering of so many wealthy individuals and firms are probably feeling a bit of schadenfreude today. There's a rising sense of populism and "eat the rich" mentality in America today, for obvious reasons.

But many people's entire net worth has been wiped out by the scam, as well as any number of philanthropic organizations. Furthermore, pressure on the fund of funds who invested with Madoff; that, in turn, is going to add to the already intense pressure on their hedge fund clients. Even if that only damages investor sentiment, it could very much affect portfolios of people who never heard of Bernie Madoff prior to last week.

If there's anything we've learned this year it's that anyone with any skin the game is interconnected to everyone else - for better or, more typically in 2008, worse.

202 Comments

Charles
Charles - Monday December 15, 2008 02:11PM EST

GREED CORRUPTS!........ABSOLUTE GREED CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY!!! MAN'S GREED EGO HAS NO LIMIT! GIVE ME, GIVE ME, GIVE ME!!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:15PM EST

White collar crime without violence pays, especially in Canada.We all know of some convictions but you can count them on one hand. Lets get with the program or we will all suffer.

Ronald
Ronald - Monday December 15, 2008 02:15PM EST

The SEC employees must be wiped clean from the commission. Start w/fresh/intelligent/willing young people who have new ideas. Once again the "Peter Princple" emerges but in this case it took a long time to uncover. As far as the rich go-now they feel what the "little guy" faces daily/yearly by power abuse.

wallacem
wallacem - Monday December 15, 2008 02:15PM EST

in europe for centuries it was the lords of the manor and the peasants and serfs. so what else is new? we now have much the same thing only in a refined form.

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Monday December 15, 2008 02:17PM EST

SEC IS SLEEPING FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS

Greg Cappel, CFP, CRPC
Greg Cappel, CFP, CRPC - Monday December 15, 2008 02:24PM EST

Compliance is onerous on mainstreet brokers and broker-dealers today. It is unbelievable that I can't so much as burp without some regulator crying foul, but an elitist firm with connections that reach deep into the financial and political framework can orchestrate the oversight of their deception for yeears. What an appallingly sad comment this is on the SEC who had an opportunity more than a decade ago to look carefully under the hood, but for whatever reason, were urged to turn a blind eye.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:27PM EST

Bernie Madoff probably started out with the best of intentions, like most hedge fund operators. At the beginning these money managers all try to do the right thing. Then reality strikes. They realize they are no good at managing money and then they cover up losses. Most hedge funds operate as a ponzi I believe. Charitable organizations and pension funds should never, never be invested in hedge funds. If pension funds are that stupid to invest in hedge funds, then they deserve to take a bath. We could be hearing about other non profits getting wiped out at the hands of the ponzi hedge funds.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:28PM EST

I'm going to change my name to stien. Then maybe I'll get bailed out too.

STORMSTOCKER1
STORMSTOCKER1 - Monday December 15, 2008 02:28PM EST

MADOFFS MAGNICANT SEVEN 1. A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED. 2. DOUBLE YOUR MONEY- FOLD IT IN HALF. 3. WHERE IS THE C.P.A.'s AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENT?? 4. WHERE IS THE REGULATORS AUDITORS INFORMATION?? 5. WHO REGULATES THE REULATORS?? 6. FOOL ME ONCE, YES, FOOL ME TWICE, DOUBLE FOOLS. 7. EVERYONE'S A CROOKED FOOL, WHEN A CROOK FOOLS EVERYONE.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:30PM EST

Johnny Ike sounds and looks ( ALL CAPITALS TODAY) like this Madoff thing has gotten to his money?? hope all is well jonny

ANTHONY
ANTHONY - Monday December 15, 2008 02:30PM EST

ITS AMAZING.. .THE POLITICIANS AND THE JUDGES STICK THE POLICE /LAW ENFORCEMENT, BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND THE LIBERAL JUDGES,,,,, I THINK ITS TIME FOR... #1- FOUR STRIKES AND YOU GET EXILED TO A THIRD WORLD ROAD GANG.OR YOU LOOSE YOUR CITIZENSHIP, OR BOTH...,,, #2- MY WALLET CANT AFFORD ALL THE MOOCHERS AND ALL THE CRIME,AND $60,000 A YEAR COSTS PER CRIMINAL HONEST PEOPLE I DONT GET A FREE LAWYER, NEITHER SHOULD THEY.. THEY HAVE TO PAY IT BACK,, JUST LIKE THE REST OF US,,I M TIRED OF TURNING ON THE 10 O CLOCK NEWS AND SEEING EVERY CRIMINAL GET FREE MEDICAL ,LAWYERS, EDUCATION,, I WANT TO SEE SOME "REAL REAL CHANGE".IN MY POCKET, WELFARE/JAIL BENEFITS ARE BETTER THAN WORKING PEOPLE GET,,AND INFORCE THE DEATH PENALTY ,..$60,000 A YEAR IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE... ITS LIKE GETTING PAID TO BE AN SOCIAL ASS HOLE.. VETERANS GET SCREWED, WORKERS GET SCREWED,,, AND SOCIETY GETS THE SHAFT

ArthurD
ArthurD - Monday December 15, 2008 02:32PM EST

Time for armed rebellion before they take your arms. Miltia raid on wall st first then D.C.. Take'em down!!! They are not representing us according to the constitution. Our rights are beong violated. That is why the constitution provides the right to form militias. So we the people can defend and get back our rights from the viloaters. Take'm down!!! One congress person per state needs to be moved out of office physically. Take'm down!!! Detroit would be better as a prison city. Take'm down!!! However, it feels good to see all the high falutin podunks get creamed financially by one little old trusted man..hehehe

TS
TS - Monday December 15, 2008 02:35PM EST

Hmmm, it's 50 Billion dollar fund, it's 17 Billion $ short of what it was suppose to have, due to the fraud. . . Actually, If you invested in this you'd only be down 34% instead of over 50% being invested in a real fund . . .

STORMSTOCKER1
STORMSTOCKER1 - Monday December 15, 2008 02:35PM EST

BERNIE BALL........ 1. A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED 2. DOUBLE Y0UR MONEY-FOLD IT IN HALF 3. EVERYONES A CROOKED FOOL, WHEN A CROOK FOOLS EVERYONE.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:37PM EST

Jeez, Blodgett talking about another WS crook. Guess it takes one to know one!

- Monday December 15, 2008 02:40PM EST

I love it when people comment on an important issue and spell "lose" wrong.

Gustavo
Gustavo - Monday December 15, 2008 02:44PM EST

Dear Sirs from Yahoo Finance: Please send me a list of investments for my retirement. Do not include any investing that is part of the current financial network.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday December 15, 2008 02:45PM EST

You can't blame George Bush and the current SEC on this one. This fraud began back in the days of Mr. Clean Leavitt and his crowd.

Robert
Robert - Monday December 15, 2008 02:46PM EST

Just heard a comment via radio about another ponzi scheme: SOCIAL SECURITY! Think about it!

Nick
Nick - Monday December 15, 2008 02:47PM EST

BOUT AH YEAR AGO I ANSWERED AH QUESTION ,, AND WAS MADE FUN OF ,, WE,LL MY VIEWS AIN,T CHANGED , NOW THEY SAY WE,VE BEEN IN AH RECESSION FOR ABOUT AH YEAR ??? WHEN MAN NO LONGER CAN SEE OR HEAR THA TRUTH ,, KNOW THAT THA TIME IS NEER ,, WHEN MAN SHOWS HIS FEMINEM SIDE ,, WHEN AH MOTHER IS ALLOWED TO KILL HER OWN CHILDREN ,,, WHEN MONEY , GREED , POWER , AND SINS OF THA FLESH HAVE BECOME ACCEPTABLE IN SOCIETY ,, THA LAST I HEARD ,, JUSUS WASN,T TAKIN CREDIT CARDS , TITLES , DEEDS OR PAPER MONEY AS DOWN PAYMENT ,, TO GET YOUR NAME PUT IN THA BOOK OF LIFE ,,, ITS GONNA GET AH LOT WORSE ,,, WE HAVEN,T SEEN NOTHIN YET ,,, MANNY , MANNY , MANY ,,, WE,RE CALLED , YET ONLY AH FEW WERE CHOSEN ,,, I,M STILL WAITIN ON ONE OF THA WORLD LEADERS TO TELL US TO GET ON OUR KNEES AND PRAY ,,, AND THEN WE WILL HAVE AH LEADER , WORTH FOLLOWING ,,,

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