Bernard Madoff: On the trail of Madoff's missing millions
As the financier seeks a deal with prosecutors, James Quinn in New York details the unusual working practices now under intense scrutiny.
James Quinn in New York
Last Updated: 3:43PM GMT 19 Jan 2009
telegraph.co.uk
When Bernard Madoff entered Manhattan's federal court-house on Wednesday morning, underneath his trademark black trench coat sat a blue bullet-proof vest.
The vest - appearing to be a standard issue New York Police Department flak jacket - signified not only the seriousness with which his security detail are taking his safety, but also the number of death threats made against a man whose name has become synonymous with all that is wrong on Wall Street.
In New York, "Bernie'' Madoff is public enemy number one - with at least one passer-by outside the court urging him to "Do the right thing: jump''.
In just a month, Mr Madoff has gone from a man best known in financial and Jewish circles for his generous charitable giving and delivering healthy annual returns to investors to one who has led pensioners, charities and individuals to lose their life's savings, bankrupting funds and banks alike with apparently little regard for whom he was taking money from.
For the 70-year-old American is the alleged orchestrator of a fraudulent investment scheme - known as a Ponzi - that saw him channel money from new investors to old investors, fraudulently channelling in excess of $50bn (£ 33.9bn) if his alleged December confession to his sons is to be believed.
The list of those hurt by Mr Madoff reads like a who's who: film director Steven Spielberg, City superwoman Nicola Horlick, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, actor Kevin Bacon; all have some way been connected to losses at his hands.
But Mr Madoff stressed in his December confessions to sons Andrew and Mark and to the FBI agent who arrested him, that he acted alone.
But behind the glitzy headlines is the tale of Bernard Madoff, a tale of a man working alone, desperately taking on more and more money to cover past losses, or one of a man who worked in tandem with others to fraudulently take from those who trusted him most? Isolated from the outside world, under round-the-clock house arrest at his luxurious $7m apartment on New York's Upper East Side, with only wife Ruth and the occasional lawyer or security guard for company, there is increasing evidence that Mr Madoff, who has yet to enter a plea in the case, is this weekend trying to cut a deal with prosecutors.
Amid all the hullaballoo of the last seven days as to whether he should be jailed for breaching bail conditions by sending packages containing millions of dollars of jewellery to family and friends, it went little noticed that prosecutors asked a New York judge to refrain from indicting him for a further month pending investigations.
Insiders said Mr Madoff was trying to arrange some form of plea bargain, whereby he would give evidence in order to shorten a potential prison sentence, which could be as long as 20 years.
Neither defence lawyers nor prosecutors have commented - Mr Madoff's lawyers say only that their client is co-operating with the investigation - but it appears possible that he may give up others or the whereabouts of remaining funds in return for a lighter sentence.
Questions are being asked about who else knew what Mr Madoff was up to, and indeed assisted him.
Since the alleged fraud first came to light in mid-December, a number of forensic experts have asked whether Mr Madoff would have been able to operate such a complex and detailed fraud - given that there were thousands of investors throughout the seven feeder funds that fed into the main fund - all on his own.
In late December, some investors produced statements from their investments with Madoff, which showed that not all was right.
One from an anonymous investor - dated November 30, 2007 - showed that Madoff purchased shares in consumer technology giant Apple at $100.78 on November 12. But Apple's trading range, even taking into account a three-day settlement period after the shares were purchased, was between $90-93.
The complexity and detail of these and other irregularities point to the existence of accomplices.
Joel Seligman, a historian of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and President of Rochester University, said it was "thoroughly mysterious'' that losses of this size could take place without anyone noticing. Lawyer Ron Geffner, a partner at US law firm Sadis & Goldberg agreed, telling Fortune magazine: "It's hard to imagine that given the amount of assets that he managed that people would not have been aware.''
Investigators are trying to piece together how Mr Madoff operated and with whom.
The starting point has been a little known accountancy firm responsible for auditing the main fund, Friehling & Horowitz. Its staff was made up of a 78-year-old retiree, an accountant and a secretary, apparently operating from a 13ft by 8ft office in Rockland County, northern New York.
The Madoff fund management business was limited to the 17th floor of the Lipstick building in midtown Manhattan from which the wider Madoff empire also operated. On the 17th floor sat Mr Madoff and perhaps as few as 20 other employees, who did not interact with staff at the firm's market-making division, which was meant to be the core of the business. But even so, market-making staff might have sensed something was wrong, given pay kept rising even when business began to slump.
In recent days, it has emerged that as revenue and profits fell at the market-making division - known as Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) - so the annual payroll increased. In the last two years, pre-tax profit at BLMIS fell by 92pc, but salaries rose 11pc in 2007 and 11.5pc in 2008. Surely a reason for concern?
Another focus has been the moneymen: those responsible for raising the funds from investors. Primary among them is Robert Jaffe, the 64-year-old Floridian philanthropist who was well known in the Palm Beach community which has been one of the hardest hit by the Madoff affair. At ease in the social circles within which he mixed, Mr Jaffe acted as the front-man for Mr Madoff, who, although attending occasional charity events in the wealthy Florida beachside community, preferred to remain somewhat reclusive. This was partly because, some have suggested, it built up an air of mystery about the funds he managed.
In return for providing access to what was an exclusive "club'', Mr Jaffe earned 1pc-2pc of an investor's first profits which were paid to him by Cohmad Securities, a firm part owned by Mr Madoff which operated from the same building as his operations.
Mr Jaffe, who worked for Cohmad since 1989, continues to attest that he knew nothing of how the money would be invested, and points out that he is as much a victim as anyone, given father-in-law Carl Shapiro, the textiles magnate, has lost an estimated $545m through personal and charitable losses.
A subpoena was issued in December for Mr Jaffe to testify on Tuesday last week, but he failed to attend, providing a sick note from a local doctor. The Massachusetts regulator has now asked a court to force Mr Jaffe to testify, suing him after he failed to comply with the earlier subpoena.
Another man who raised significant amounts of money for Mr Madoff's pot was Ezra Merkin, a pillar of New York's Jewish community, chairman of General Motors' financing house.
Mr Merkin, who is estimated to have lost in excess of $2bn for clients, also finds himself under the regulatory spotlight for his involvement.
At the end of last week, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo shone the spotlight fully on Mr Merkin, issuing subpoenas to three of his funds as part of a wider probe into how Mr Madoff's actions impacted charities and other non-profit organisations.
Mr Cuomo, who has a fearless reputation among the Wall Street community, is seeking information from three of the fund manager's funds - Ascot Partners, which had $1.8bn of assets, and two smaller funds, Gabriel Capital and the Ariel fund.
Each fund has already been sued by investors, such as New York's Yeshiva University which claims to have lost about $110m from its endowment as a result of investing with the go-between.
Mr Merkin denies any wrongdoing and said he is co-operating with the investigation after losing money himself.
Otherwise, the Madoff family is key to understanding the firm's operations. Mr Madoff's brother Peter, was chief compliance officer and head of trading and the pair are said to have run the firm like patriarchs. Then there are Mr Madoff's sons, Andrew and Mark, as well as Peter's daughter, Shana, and nephew Charles, son of Bernard and Peter's sister, Sandra. Even Bernard's wife Ruth - who helped out in the early days of the business in the 1960s with a spot of book-keeping - was a director of the company. What makes it odd is that none of the six family members who worked there full-time had ever really worked anywhere else at a senior level
Bernard Madoff began the business in 1960 with $5,000 saved from his work as a lifeguard at New York's Rockaway beach and installing sprinkler systems. He was joined by Peter in 1965, who graduated from Fordham law school two years later. Charles Wiener, Bernard's nephew, joined up in 1978, becoming director of administration. Eight years later, came Mark, after graduating from Michigan, followed by younger brother Andrew two years later, fresh out of the Wharton School of Business. In 1995, Shana, having also completed her studies at Fordham, joined up.
Although the qualifications of each of the family members to fulfil the roles they performed is not in question, it is interesting that not one of them ever worked for a larger Wall Street firm, where the checks and balances that go with modern money management would have been firmly on display.
Instead, the Madoff market-making business ran like a club, where members of the family appeared to be freely admitted.
"What makes it fun for all of us is to walk into the office . . . and see the rest of your family sitting there. That's a good feeling to have. To Bernie and Peter, that's what it's all about,'' said Mark in an interview in July 2000.
None of the Madoff family - other than Bernard - is under investigation.
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