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Madoff Scam Soaks Jewish Charities

His Wall Street fraud will wipe out philanthropic groups

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 13, 2008 12:08 PM CST

(Newser) – Rich investors and hedge funds aren’t the only ones losing their shirts in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Madoff was a giant in the small world of Jewish philanthropy, running millions for a variety of charitable organizations, the Washington Post reports. Deborah Coltin, for example, woke up yesterday to discover that the $8 million family foundation she’d run for a decade—and which had invested its endowment with Madoff—had just gone poof.

Madoff’s own $19 million foundation also was wiped out, while a Long Island Jewish Health program lost $5 million, and a Texas-based foundation that gave to Jewish causes lost $6 million. “I laid off five people today,” said a shell-shocked Coltin, whose group dispensed about $1.5 million a year to Massachusetts Jewish groups. “Our foundation was the lifeblood of this community. It’s just very, very sad.”

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Bernard L. Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities is seen on his Manhattan trading floor in this photo taken Dec. 30, 1999, in New York. (AP Photo/The New York Times)

Investors inquiring about their money, and others, gather in the lobby of where Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, have their offices Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff)

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In an era of faceless organizations owned by other equally faceless organizations, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC harks back to an earlier era in the financial world: The owner's name is on the door. - Madoff's website

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Madoff Scam Soaks Jewish Charities