June 29, 2009

The Madoff Benefactors


The last 6 months we saw many people on television who lost a lot of money because of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme but what you hardly see are the persons that benefited from it. Yes, there are folks who got out in time and made a lot of money, but do you see those folks on television? Not really, right? Here's an article from MSNBC which details one person who in fact profited heavily from the scheme.
Allegedly Jeffry Picower withdrew $5.1 billion from Madoff's accounts.
Between December 1995 and December 2008, Picower and his family withdrew from their various Madoff accounts $5.1 billion more than they invested with the self-confessed swindler, according to a lawsuit filed by the trustee who is trying to recover money for those Madoff defrauded.
What people tend to forget is that besides people who lost money because of Madoff, there are some people who made a lot of money because of Madoff. Yet, not surprisingly, those people don't come forward. You can wonder just how much of the $50 billion that investers lost wound up in the pockets of people like Picower, and if they would be willing to return their investment. They are pretty quiet right now. . .

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