Fund Warned Clients Madoff 'Could Abscond With Assets'

SEC unfurls $50B scam that should have been obvious

(NEWSER) - For every detail that emerges from the 17th-floor office of Bernard Madoff, two more inconsistencies arise. A federal judge ordered the liquidation of Madoff’s eponymous investment firm and a federal agency has begun to try to compensate clients. Meanwhile, scrutiny of clients' financial statements shows Madoff's stated strategy of balancing stock trades with options couldn't have worked on the scale he claimed to be doing it, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

$50B Ponzi scheme will stagger funds, send investors to exits

(NEWSER) - Even as hedge funds face their worst yearly returns ever, they may take another collective $10 billion hit on money invested in Bernard Madoff’s namesake firm, which was revealed to be a giant Ponzi scheme yesterday, Bloomberg reports. Madoff was arrested and charged with fraud after admitting that his investment business was “one big lie” that lost up to $50 billion in clients' money. More»

(NEWSER) - Investigators have only recovered $1.2 billion of the $13.2 billion bilked from investors by Bernard Madoff since 1995, reports the Wall Street Journal. Eligible victims may be compensated up to $500,000 by the Securities Investor Protection Corp., but the rest will have to come from whatever investigators can find. Trustees say Madoff hasn't provided "meaningful cooperation" to help them locate the vanished loot. More»

Funds address fraction of 9,000 claims: trustee

(NEWSER) - It's a start. Some of Bernie Madoff's clients will get back at least a portion of the money that he stole. Trustee Irving Picard says he expects to approve at least $100 million of investor claims—mere hundreds out of nearly 9,000 filed claims—by May 25, Bloomberg reports. Picard has recovered $1 billion and sued for another $10 billion from funds that withdrew money from Madoff accounts before his arrest. More»

Fraudster may have confessed to brother before he told his sons

(NEWSER) - Bernard Madoff's brother learned that the Madoff fund was a huge scam the evening before the fraudster confessed to his sons, but he failed to inform authorities, insiders tell the New York Times. Peter Madoff, who worked closely with his older brother for decades, has not been charged with any crime, but experts say he was obligated to tell regulators as soon as he was informed, as the sons did. Also among Bernard Madoff's victims, the New York Post reports: his own sister. More»